Flooding and 1,700 lightning strikes as rain batters Sweden
Up to 40 millimetres of rain fell locally in Kalmar on Tuesday, and lightning struck 1,700 times, causing around 24,000 households to lose power for three hours.
The rainband was set to move north across central Sweden on Wednesday, but by the morning all heavy rain warnings previously issued by national weather agency SMHI had been lifted with the worst of it appearing to subside – although experts still warned of the risk of sudden local rain showers causing flooding.
Around four millimetres of rain was expected to fall in Stockholm on Wednesday, but sunshine was forecast for northern Sweden, where wildfire warnings remained in place.
Swedish vocabulary: rain shower – regnskur
Why your flights could become more expensive
Flight ticket prices may increase as a result of the downturn for the air industry during the pandemic, warns the Swedish Transport Agency (Transportstyrelsen).
That’s because the system that finances airport security checks made a loss of more than 2.3 billion kronor last year, due to fewer people travelling. According to the Transport Agency it may have to increase the fees for airlines, which could in turn cause higher costs for the consumer, and lead to fewer airlines setting up a base in Sweden.
Swedish vocabulary: ticket – biljett
Left Party climbs Swedish polls in wake of government crisis
The Left Party is soaring in SVT/Novus’ latest opinion poll, weeks after the party sparked a brief government crisis by successfully refusing to accept the scrapping of rent controls on newly built apartments. The party is now polling at 13.3 percent, its highest level of support since broadcaster SVT and pollsters Novus started their surveys in 2006.
The ruling Social Democrats have meanwhile dropped to 23.8 percent, followed by the Sweden Democrats at 21.6 percent and the Moderates at 21.0 percent. The rest is made up of the Christian Democrats at 4.5, Green Party at 3.8 and Liberals at 2.2 percent – however the Left Party’s increase is the only one that’s statistically significant.
Swedish party: opinion poll – opinionsundersökning
Swedish prosecutors charge Iranian man over ‘war crimes and murder’
An Iranian man faces trial in Sweden over his alleged connection to the execution of more than 100 political prisoners in Iran.
Swedish prosecutors said they were charging 60-year-old Hamid Noury, who was arrested in Sweden in 2019, for “war crimes and murder” over the mass killings of prisoners in Karaj, Iran, towards the end of the 1980-1988 war between Iran and Iraq.
Noury was arrested upon his arrival at the airport in Stockholm, with Swedish media reporting at the time that he was visiting relatives.
His lawyer told AFP that he denies the charges against him.
Swedish vocabulary: trial – rättegång
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