Category Archives: Sweden

Swedish national security adviser quits after mislaying classified documents

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Henrik Landerholm left behind documents at a hotel, a phone at an embassy and a notebook after a radio interview

Sweden’s national security adviser has announced his resignation as police opened an investigation after he inadvertently left classified documents at a hotel, one of a series of mishaps that Swedish media have revealed in recent weeks.

Henrik Landerholm, whose appointment two years ago sparked debate due to his longstanding friendship with the prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, also left a notebook behind after an interview and left his phone at the Hungarian embassy, incidents particularly embarrassing given his sensitive national security role.

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Sweden opens inquiry into damaged undersea cable as Nato deploys ships

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A vessel has been seized after suspected sabotage of fibre optic line, probably due to external influence, Latvia says

An undersea fibre optic cable between Latvia and Sweden was damaged on Sunday, probably as a result of external influence, Riga has said, prompting Nato to deploy patrol ships to the area and triggering a sabotage investigation by Swedish authorities.

Sweden’s security service has seized control of a vessel as part of the inquiry, the country’s prosecution authority said.

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Sweden neither at war nor at peace, says PM, as warships sent to Baltic Sea

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Ulf Kristersson says ‘hostile intent cannot be ruled out’ as increased surveillance follows suspected cable sabotage

The Swedish prime minister has said that his country is neither at war nor at peace as he announced that Sweden would be sending armed forces into the Baltic Sea for the first time as part of increased surveillance efforts amid a spate of suspected sabotage of undersea cables.

The country announced it will contribute up to three warships and a surveillance aircraft to a Nato effort to monitor critical infrastructure and Russia’s “shadow fleet” as the alliance tries to guard against sabotage of underwater infrastructure.

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Sweden begins wolf hunt as it aims to halve endangered animal’s population

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Five entire families can be killed, totalling 30 wolves, in move campaigners say is illegal under EU law

Sweden’s wolf hunt starts on Thursday, with the country aiming to halve the population of the endangered predator.

The Swedish government has given the green light for five entire wolf families, a total of 30 wolves, to be killed in a hunt campaigners say is illegal under EU law. Under the Berne convention, protected species cannot be caused to have their populations fall under a sustainable level.

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Swedish PM says Baltic sea now ‘high risk’ after suspected cable sabotage

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Regional leaders meet after undersea telecoms cables severed, while Chinese ship remains at anchor nearby

The Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, has said the Baltic sea is now a “high risk” zone as he met Nordic and Baltic leaders days after a suspected sabotage attack on undersea cables.

The Swedish prime minister declined to speculate on who may have been responsible for the severing of two fibre optic telecoms cables in the Baltic last week. A Chinese ship – the Yi Peng 3 – that sailed over the cables about the time they were severed has remained anchored in the Kattegat strait between Sweden and Denmark since 19 November.

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Swedish police focus on Chinese ship after suspected undersea cable sabotage

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Investigators gather evidence at two Baltic sites while Danish navy is shadowing Chinese cargo ship

Swedish police investigating the believed sabotage of two fibre-optic undersea cables in the Baltic Sea have said a Chinese ship off the coast of Denmark was “of interest” as Danish officials said its navy was shadowing a Chinese-registered cargo ship.

The ship, identified by Denmark as the Yi Peng 3, passed the two cables on Sunday and Monday about the time it is believed they were severed in a suspected malicious attack. The ship has been shadowed by a Danish navy vessel since it was located in waters between Sweden and Denmark.

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We assume damage to Baltic Sea cables was sabotage, German minister says

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Boris Pistorius says ‘no one believes’ two undersea fibre-optic communications cables were cut accidentally

Germany has said it has to assume that damage to two undersea fibre-optic communication cables in the Baltic Sea since Sunday was an act of sabotage.

Two cables – one between Finland and Germany, the other between Sweden and Lithuania – were severed on Sunday and Monday, raising suspicions of a malicious attack, though authorities initially declined to speculate.

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Two telecoms cables in Baltic Sea severed, raising suspicions of sabotage

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Outages include 1,200km link between Germany and Finland and 218km cable between Lithuania and Sweden

Two undersea fibre-optic communications cables in the Baltic Sea, including one linking Finland and Germany, have been severed, raising suspicions of sabotage by bad actors.

The episode on Monday recalled other incidents in the same waterway that authorities have probed as potentially malicious, including damage to a gas pipeline and undersea cables last year and the 2022 explosions of the Nord Sea gas pipelines.

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Swedes left longing for sweets as viral TikTok starts craze for candy

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The tradition of chomping through a kilo of sweets once a week is under threat as demand soars for sugary sweets

Swedes love sweets. So when an American TikToker sparked a craze for Swedish candy this year, there was pride that an important part of national culture was being recognised around the world. The Danes may have Ozempic but the Swedes have lördagsgodis – Saturday sweets – where families chew through more than 1kg of sticky treats in an evening.

That pride has given way to some irritation. Supplies of some Swedish sweets ran dry in the autumn due to the high demand in the US, South Korea and in Scandinavia. And there was another factor, an equally important Swedish tradition: the six-week summer holiday.

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Banana-phobe Swedish minister’s staff insisted on ‘no traces in the room’

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Colleagues speak up in Paulina Brandberg’s support after leaked emails reveal efforts to spare her from the fruit

A Swedish government minister’s fear of bananas has become a national talking point after emails revealed that such is the strength of her aversion that aides try to clear rooms of the fruit before she enters.

Paulina Brandberg, the minister for gender equality and work life, has previously spoken out about her issue with bananas, describing it as “the world’s weirdest phobia”.

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Swedish firm censured for use of C-word in ads for vaginal health supplements

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Regulator deems posters offensive, though Elexir Pharma argues term is ‘not loaded in the same way as in the UK’

The Swedish advertising ombudsman has criticised a company for using the C-word in posters to promote vaginal health supplements, saying the use of the “gross profanity” is offensive to consumers.

The ads, displayed on public transport in Stockholm and Gothenburg, feature the phrase “you can cunt on us” in pink writing.

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Swedish court jails far-right leader who burned Qur’an

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Danish politician Rasmus Paludan sentenced to four months for incitement against ethnic group

A far-right Danish-Swedish politician has been sentenced to prison on charges of incitement against an ethnic group for burning copies of the Qur’an and making offensive statements about Muslims.

Rasmus Paludan was the first person to go on trial in Sweden – and is now the first to be sentenced – for burning the Qur’an during an organised demonstration.

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Full-scale war in Middle East involving Israel and Iran likely, say most Europeans in poll

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Large majorities in seven countries condemn 7 October attacks – but most common view is Israel’s response in Gaza is also unjustified

Full-scale war in the Middle East involving Israel and Iran is now likely, most western Europeans responding in a poll believe, with many criticising Israel’s conduct thus far and saying that if such a war did occur, the US and Europe should not provide it with military aid.

A YouGov Eurotrack survey in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Denmark and the UK found that strong majorities in all seven countries, ranging from 65% in France to 82% in Spain, felt the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023 were not justified.

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Sweden scraps plans for 13 offshore windfarms over Russia security fears

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Decision comes after military concludes projects would complicate defending Nato’s newest member against attack

Sweden has vetoed plans for 13 offshore windfarms in the Baltic Sea, citing unacceptable security risks.

The country’s defence minister, Pål Jonson, said on Monday that the government had rejected plans for all but one of 14 windfarms planned along the east coast.

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Sweden abolishes tax on plastic bags despite warnings usage could rise

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Levy that reduced usage by more than three-quarters in four years fell victim to rightwing culture wars, say critics

A tax that has reduced plastic bag consumption in Sweden by more than three-quarters in four years is being abolished on Friday, despite warnings that the move could lead to usage rising back towards previous levels.

Since the introduction of the 3 kroner (£0.21) tax in May 2020, plastic bag usage in the country has slumped. In 2019, before the levy was introduced, people in Sweden used an average of 74 plastic bags (15-50 micrometres thick) per person each year each. In 2023 that number had dropped to 17.

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Funding cuts could mean death of Sámi languages, say Indigenous parliaments

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Sweden and Finland plan to withdraw funding to safeguard nine languages defined as threatened by Unesco

The Indigenous parliaments of Sweden, Finland and Norway have warned that some Sámi languages could disappear if Stockholm and Helsinki press ahead with plans to withdraw funding that could hit a critical preservation body.

Sámi Giellagáldu was created to safeguard, promote and strengthen the use of the nine Sámi languages across the Nordics, including North Sámi, which is spoken by an estimated 20,000 people across Norway, Sweden and Finland and classified by Unesco as endangered, and the much smaller Pite Sámi and Ute Sámi, which have less than 50 speakers each.

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Hand grenades thrown near Israeli embassy in Copenhagen

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In separate incident, Swedish police launch investigation after shots fired at Israeli embassy in Stockholm

Police in Denmark and Sweden are investigating after hand grenades were thrown near the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen and shots were fired at the Israeli embassy in Stockholm on Tuesday night and the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Three Swedish men were arrested in the Danish capital on Wednesday on suspicion of involvement in two explosions near the Israeli embassy at 3.20am in the Copenhagen district of Hellerup.

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Anti-immigration mood sweeping EU threatens its new asylum strategy

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The bloc’s migration pact, finally agreed after a decade of talks, is already in peril as states outdo each other in efforts to get tough

In 2015, when more than 1.3 million people headed to Europe, mostly fleeing a brutal war in Syria, the response of Germany’s then chancellor, Angela Merkel, was to say “Wir schaffen das” (“We can manage this”), and open the country’s borders.

Less than a decade later, and faced with a flow of irregular arrivals less than 10% of what it was at the peak of the bloc’s migration crisis, EU capitals are increasingly saying, “No, we can’t”. Or, perhaps more accurately, “We won’t”.

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Batterymaker Northvolt to cut 1,600 jobs amid electric car ‘headwinds’

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Move comes after weeks of uncertainty over reports of financial problems as green vehicle sector struggles

The Swedish batterymaker Northvolt is to cut 1,600 jobs, in response to “headwinds” blowing through the electric car industry.

The battery company announced redundancies across three of its sites on Monday, including 1,000 in Skellefteå, in northern Sweden, where it is suspending the expansion of Northvolt Ett, Europe’s first homegrown battery gigafactory.

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Swedish children to start school a year earlier in move away from play

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Compulsory preschool year for six-year-olds to be replaced with extra year in primary school from 2028

Children in Sweden are to start school at six years old from 2028, a year earlier than at present, in an overhaul of the country’s education system that signals a switch from play-based teaching for younger children.

The government has announced plans to replace a compulsory preschool year for six-year-olds known as förskoleklass with an additional year in grundskola (primary school).

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