Today in Sweden: A roundup of the latest news on Thursday
There's a significant wildfire risk in almost all of Sweden, the results of a new Nato survey are out – and has Sweden really recognised sex as an official sport? Here's the latest news.
Sweden braces for risk of forest fires
The risk of wildfires is high to extremely high in nearly all of Sweden at the moment, and weather agency SMHI predicts that the situation is only going to get worse.
On Thursday there’s a forest fire warning in place for all of southern and central Sweden, as well as along the northern east coast. There's also a grass warning in place for the north-western mountain range. Meanwhile, there’s hardly any rain forecast for the coming week.
“It’s dry, drier, driest and really dry in all of southern Sweden, really, and south-eastern Norrland,” SMHI meteorologist Linnea Rehn Wittskog told the TT news agency.
Swedish vocabulary: dry – torr
‘Unique’ find on wrecked Swedish warship
Several wooden sculptures have been found on 17th century warship Äpplet – the sister ship of Sweden’s famous Vasa wreck. The Äpplet shipwreck was discovered in 2021 off the island of Vaxholm, near the Swedish capital, where it’s been decided it will remain.
The sculptures include two large lions from the national coat of arms and an apple and are described by the Museum of Wrecks, Vrak, as “completely unique in their kind”.
“I’ve been diving for more than 30 years and have never found a sculpture,” Jim Hansson, a maritime archaeologist working for Vrak, said in a statement.
“To be part of finding the ones from Vasa’s sister ship Äpplet is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever experienced.”
Swedish vocabulary: a shipwreck – ett skeppsvrak
FACT CHECK: Has Sweden really recognised sex as an official sport?
You may have seen articles in some international media suggesting that Sweden has become the first country in the world to recognise sex as an official sport and is supposedly hosting the European Sex Championships later this month. Sorry to disappoint, but The Local has looked into these rumours and it turns out there's not a lot of truth to them.
A fringe group which calls itself the Swedish Sex Federation is indeed organising a sex contest – on June 8th, so today, in fact – in an undisclosed location near Jönköping, but despite the group's official-sounding name, it is not a member of the Swedish Sports Confederation. It did submit a request for membership, but was rejected due to not submitting the proper paperwork.
The Local spoke to a representative of the Swedish Sports Confederation and it's safe to say they were not entirely happy about the rumours...
Swedish vocabulary: a championship – ett mästerskap
More Swedes 'very positive' to Nato membership
More than two out of three Swedes are very or fairly positive to Nato membership (67.8 percent in total, according to a new survey by national number-crunchers Statistics Sweden).
The share who describe themselves very positive has increased 2.1 percentage points to 31 percent, compared to November last year. Meanwhile 21.2 percent are very or fairly negative, and 11 percent are undecided.
Sweden applied for Nato membership last year, breaking decades of military non-alignment. All Nato countries have ratified its application apart from Turkey and Hungary.
Swedish vocabulary: a membership – ett medlemskap
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Sweden braces for risk of forest fires
The risk of wildfires is high to extremely high in nearly all of Sweden at the moment, and weather agency SMHI predicts that the situation is only going to get worse.
On Thursday there’s a forest fire warning in place for all of southern and central Sweden, as well as along the northern east coast. There's also a grass warning in place for the north-western mountain range. Meanwhile, there’s hardly any rain forecast for the coming week.
“It’s dry, drier, driest and really dry in all of southern Sweden, really, and south-eastern Norrland,” SMHI meteorologist Linnea Rehn Wittskog told the TT news agency.
Swedish vocabulary: dry – torr
‘Unique’ find on wrecked Swedish warship
Several wooden sculptures have been found on 17th century warship Äpplet – the sister ship of Sweden’s famous Vasa wreck. The Äpplet shipwreck was discovered in 2021 off the island of Vaxholm, near the Swedish capital, where it’s been decided it will remain.
The sculptures include two large lions from the national coat of arms and an apple and are described by the Museum of Wrecks, Vrak, as “completely unique in their kind”.
“I’ve been diving for more than 30 years and have never found a sculpture,” Jim Hansson, a maritime archaeologist working for Vrak, said in a statement.
“To be part of finding the ones from Vasa’s sister ship Äpplet is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever experienced.”
Swedish vocabulary: a shipwreck – ett skeppsvrak
FACT CHECK: Has Sweden really recognised sex as an official sport?
You may have seen articles in some international media suggesting that Sweden has become the first country in the world to recognise sex as an official sport and is supposedly hosting the European Sex Championships later this month. Sorry to disappoint, but The Local has looked into these rumours and it turns out there's not a lot of truth to them.
A fringe group which calls itself the Swedish Sex Federation is indeed organising a sex contest – on June 8th, so today, in fact – in an undisclosed location near Jönköping, but despite the group's official-sounding name, it is not a member of the Swedish Sports Confederation. It did submit a request for membership, but was rejected due to not submitting the proper paperwork.
The Local spoke to a representative of the Swedish Sports Confederation and it's safe to say they were not entirely happy about the rumours...
Swedish vocabulary: a championship – ett mästerskap
More Swedes 'very positive' to Nato membership
More than two out of three Swedes are very or fairly positive to Nato membership (67.8 percent in total, according to a new survey by national number-crunchers Statistics Sweden).
The share who describe themselves very positive has increased 2.1 percentage points to 31 percent, compared to November last year. Meanwhile 21.2 percent are very or fairly negative, and 11 percent are undecided.
Sweden applied for Nato membership last year, breaking decades of military non-alignment. All Nato countries have ratified its application apart from Turkey and Hungary.
Swedish vocabulary: a membership – ett medlemskap
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