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Coordinated dismissals come in response to expulsion of three EU diplomats by Moscow last weekGermany, Poland and Sweden have each expelled a Russian diplomat in a coordinated act of retaliation over the expulsion of three EU officials by Moscow while the bloc’s foreign policy chief was visiting last week.The tit-for-tat expulsions on Monday underscored the volatility in east-west relations and an erosion of trust...

An experiment with the ‘one-minute city’ gives priority to pedestrians and cyclistsIt was a couple of parking spaces a few days ago. But now the area outside Malin Henriksson Talcoth’s gourmet sausage shop in Gothenburg has a bench, a picnic table and racks for cycles and e-scooters. It also has people talking, eating and enjoying themselves, despite subzero temperatures.The workmen had arrived the previous...

Schemes are in development from Sweden to China, but there are fears around transmission and social unrestCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageIt is the question being asked with increasing urgency around the world, at least in countries where the vaccine is already available: how much freedom to live life as it was before the pandemic should be granted to those who have...

Four people recently arrived from UK test positive for variant in Madrid, and one in Sweden Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageSpain and Sweden have joined the growing list of countries to have reported cases of the more contagious coronavirus variant first identified in Britain.Four cases of the variant have been confirmed in Madrid. All involve people who recently arrived from the...

Champions of herd immunity once lauded the Nordic refuseniks. All that has changed nowCoronavirus - latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverage“Thanks for reminding me,” Sweden’s state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell replied deadpan when the Observer asked in late March how he handled the knowledge that he would be to blame if Sweden’s decision to forego a lockdown were to go badly wrong.“But seriously,” he continued,...

Criticism of anti-lockdown stance comes as hospitals struggle to cope with surge in casesCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe king of Sweden has said the country’s anti-lockdown coronavirus strategy has failed, as hospitals in the Stockholm region warned they were struggling to cope with a surge in cases and polls showed public confidence in the authorities had plunged to a new low.“The...

Military run down after cold war but Russian activity in Baltic Sea forces hasty rearmamentSweden will increase military spending by about 40% in the next five years and double the number of people conscripted into its armed forces as it aims to strengthen its defence amid growing tensions with Russia, the government has said.The country, which is not a member of Nato but enjoys...

The Swedish example is regularly raised by libertarian-minded Conservatives when protesting against government restrictions aimed at quelling the spread of the virus in the UK. But what did the Scandinavian country do differently and could it be applied elsewhere?When politicians across the world were confronted with the reality of a spreading pandemic, hospitals nearing capacity and deaths rising almost all of them reached for...

Sweden, Finland and Estonia to jointly assess new information on 1994 sinking of MS EstoniaNordic leaders have announced that they will examine evidence from a new television documentary that could shatter the official explanation of how 852 people died in a 1994 ferry sinking in the Baltic Sea.The makers of the five-part documentary series, which was released for streaming on Monday, claimed to have...

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...

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...

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...

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...