Buses in Gothenburg cancelled as snowfall continues, 17-year old jailed for shooting, inflation falls faster than expected, and other news from Sweden on Thursday.
Buses in Gothenburg cancelled as snowfall continues
Gothenburg cancelled all municipal bus transport on Thursday morning as heavy snowfall led Sweden’s state weather forecaster SMHI to issue yet another orange weather warning for the city. The agency has also issued an orange warning for Västernorrland, where as much as 40 cm of snowfall is expected.
At the same time, the Swedish Transport Administration warned people in the Gothenburg area not to travel in their cars unless absolutely necessary.
Niklas Einevik, a meteorologist for SMHI, said in a statement that the heaviest snowfall on Thursday would be over central Norrland, with Ångermanland, the county around Härnösand and Örnsköldsvik seeing the heaviest snow of all.
Swedish vocabulary: det kraftigaste snöfallet – the heaviest snowfall
Trial of Swedish journalist to begin in Turkey
The trial of the Swedish journalist Joakim Medin begins today in Turkey, although the process could be delayed due to the Swedish government not yet deciding whether Medin can be cross-examined in Sweden.
Turkey has asked Sweden to arrange for a Swedish court to cross-examine Medin, but Sweden has so far not responded.
“It’s enormously frustrating,” Medin, who has been charged for terror crimes connected to his journalistic work, told the TT newswire. “My lawyer is going to ask the court to postpone the case because I can’t be heard. As far as I understand it can go two ways, one of which is that the judge postpones the trial.”
The second alternative is that the judge instead pushes ahead, arguing that Medin has failed to turn up in court and declaring him internationally wanted.
“I want this to be finished. This is going to happen when I’m on parental leave, and I want to have a judgement so I can appeal to a higher court in Turkey and also to the European Court,” Medin said.
Sweden’s Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer said in a statement that Turkey’s request is being handled as rapidly as possible by the Justice Department.
Swedish vocabulary: superfrustrerande – enormously frustrating
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Inflation drops unexpectedly
Sweden’s inflation rate fell to 2.1 percent in December, according to preliminary figures from Statistics Sweden, well below the 2.3 percent consensus of bank analysts.
“The inflation rate according to CPI was unchanged in December, while the inflation rate according to the CPIF/CPIF-XE measure decreased, according to preliminary calculations,” Mikael Nordin, price statistician at Statistics Sweden, said in a press release.
Sweden’s Riksbank targets the CPIF measure, which strips out the effect of changes in mortgage interest rates, and the new figures mean that it is now within 0.1 percent of meeting its target.
Swedish vocabulary: inflationsmål – inflation target
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Start of spring term delayed due to snow
Students at upper secondary schools in Gothenburg have been asked to stay home on Thursday with classes on the first day of term held online, and the start of the spring term in Bollnäs, near Gävle, has been postponed to next week due to the heavy snow.
In Uddevalla municipality, school buses have been cancelled, and Chalmers Institute of Technology on Wednesday postponed planned examinations, affecting 1,200 students.
Swedish vocabulary: en tenta – an exam
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Seventeen-year-old jailed for Stockholm shooting
A seventeen-year-old boy has been jailed for shooting a 16-year-old boy in the head and killing him in March 2025. The boy opened fire with a pistol as his victim was going through an underpass in Fruängen, southern Stockholm, firing off nine shots which also wounded another boy in the leg.
A court on Wednesday sentenced the boy to 10 years in prison, after which he will be deported from Sweden, with a ten-year re-entry ban.
The court could find no motive for the shooting, speculating that the boy killed was not the intended target and just happened to be “in the wrong place at the wrong time”.
Swedish vocabulary: måltavlan – the target/intended victim