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The right fails to recognise that the Swedes’ real virtue in this pandemic is their social cohesionSweden is to the 21st-century right what the Soviet Union was to the 20th-century left. Conservatives have transformed it into a Tory Disneyland where every dream comes true. On the shores of the Baltic lies a country that has no need to curtail civil liberties and wreck the...

Experts say that while contested ‘light touch’ response warrants study each country must find right approach for themCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageEU governments that locked down are increasingly emulating the one that did not, but experts warn that Sweden’s Covid approach, relying more on voluntary compliance than coercion, will not suit all – and big questions remain over whether it has...

Daniel Nyqvist, 37, admits killing boy and woman 15 years ago but claims it was manslaughterA 37-year-old Swedish man has gone on trial for double murder after two killings that went unsolved for more than 15 years until police matched his DNA on a popular genealogy website.Daniel Nyqvist, who confessed to the crime shortly after his arrest last June, has been charged with the...

Chief epidemiologist puts low number of cases down to light-touch ‘sustainable’ approachCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageWhile many European countries are seeing their infection rates surge to levels not seen since the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Sweden – whose light-touch approach has made it an international outlier – has recorded the fewest daily cases since the virus emerged.The Scandinavian country’s rolling...

UK updates travel advice and US urges citizens to ‘reconsider travel’ to Hong KongThe US and the UK have warned of a risk of arbitrary arrest in China and Hong Kong in updates to their travel advice for citizens.The US advice urged citizens to “reconsider travel” to Hong Kong, citing an environment in which the central Chinese government “unilaterally and arbitrarily exercises police and...

Peter Madsen, handed life sentence in 2018 for murder of Swedish journalist, makes confession in TV documentaryThe Danish inventor Peter Madsen, who was handed a life prison sentence in 2018 for the killing of the Swedish journalist Kim Wall, has confessed to the crime for the first time, in a television documentary.The 49-year-old, found guilty of premeditated murder, aggravated sexual assault and desecrating a...

Two-metre-long sturgeon found in pantry of Danish king’s vessel that sank in 1495A two-metre-long sturgeon, a species today near extinction, has been found preserved in the pantry of a 500-year-old Danish royal shipwreck in the Baltic Sea.“During archaeological excavations in 2019, a wooden barrel submerged inside the shipwreck revealed the almost complete and well-preserved remains of a sturgeon fish,” archaeologists from Lund University in...

Family ‘nailed apartment door shut with planks’ and isolated three children from each otherCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThree children taken into care after being locked up by their parents for nearly five months in case they caught the coronavirus should not be allowed to return home, an administrative court in Sweden has ruled.From March until early July, the children, aged between...

Leading imam condemns violence after police battle more than 300 on streets of the cityThe disorderly phalanx of young men and teenagers, many wearing face masks and hooded tops, started to accelerate, excitement rising, as it neared the row of police vans blocking off the troubled district of Rosengård in Malmö.“We’re gonna fuck this system up because they want to let a man burn...

Danish court also sentences two men who were under 18 at time of killings to 20 yearsA court in Denmark has jailed three Swedish men for life and two others for 20 years each over a double murder in Copenhagen, part of a running battle between rival Stockholm gangs.The two men sentenced to 20 years were both under 18 at the time of the...

Only 46% of voters in Britain think their country has done well, compared with 95% in DenmarkCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coveragePeople in Britain have given a worse assessment of their country’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak than the electorates of 13 other leading democracies, according to international research.Only 46% of the British population believe their country has done a good job...

Swedish environmental activist says she’s heading back to the classroom after travelling the world, spreading her conservation message Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg has returned to school after a year off campaigning to curb climate change.“My gap year from school is over, and it feels so great to finally be back in school again!” the 17-year-old tweeted, attaching a smiling photo of herself with...

Covid-19 caused about 4,500 deaths in six months to end of June as Sweden opted against strict lockdownCoronavirus - latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageSweden, which has stood out among European countries for its low-key approach to fighting the coronavirus pandemic, has recorded its highest tally of deaths in the first half of 2020 for 150 years, the Statistics Office said.Covid-19 claimed about 4,500...

Rahman arrived as an unaccompanied minor. Abused and deported, his future is uncertain but his European dream intact‘We want to build a life’: Europe’s paperless young people speak outRahman was out buying food when Spanish police handed him a €500 fine for breaking coronavirus restrictions. “I’ll pay this as soon as I get a residence permit,” he told them. He laughs as he recalls...

Increase in police and tougher punishments promised after child dies following apparent gangland shooting near StockholmSwedish officials have promised more police and tougher punishments amid public outrage after a 12-year-old girl was killed by a stray bullet in an apparent gangland shooting at a petrol station car park south of Stockholm.“I am aware no words are enough for those who have lost a child...

In 2017, journalist Kim Wall became the story when she was murdered after boarding a submarine. Now, Kim’s parents are sharing her life and tragedy in a new bookOn a winter night in 2017, Joachim Wall was sitting in front of his daughter’s laptop at his home in Trelleborg, a town of around 45,000 and Sweden’s southernmost. He was going through thousands of pictures,...

Spanish government injects £4bn while Sweden study casts doubt on herd immunityCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageMore than 8,000 people have been quarantined in fresh outbreaks of Covid-19 in three areas of Germany, while the most comprehensive study yet on immunity in Sweden showed very few people had developed antibodies.As governments across Europe continue to ease their restrictions, authorities in North Rhein...

Authorities end case as Stig Engström, probable killer of the prime minister, died in 2000Swedish authorities have closed their 34-year investigation into the unsolved murder of prime minister Olof Palme, naming a graphic designer at an insurance company as the probable killer but saying he could not be prosecuted because he was now dead.“We can’t get around one person as the perpetrator: he is...