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Wednesday, August 27, 2025

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https://nordictimes.com/culture/new-app-shows-location-of-rune-stones-in-sweden/

Culture

New app shows location of runestones in Sweden

Published 3 July 2024
– By Editorial Staff
The runestones "Sö 224" and "Sö 225" in Grödby in Sorunda parish.
2 minute read
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

The new app Swedish Runestones (Svenska runstenar) will help visitors to find the country’s runestones. The app provides guidance via an interactive map, information about the runestone and its condition.

Researcher Sofia Pereswetoff-Morath from Stockholm University developed the app, which is described as unique to Sweden’s runestones. Among other things, you can find out what condition the stone is in, whether it is painted or not, and whether it is damaged. The runestones are also rated with 1-5 stars depending on their condition.

Pereswetoff-Morath says that it is difficult to find runestones today because many have been moved and there is not much information about them.

– It is difficult to find runestones, even if you are very interested, she said in a press release. Many stones have been moved and are no longer in their original locations.

There is also digital signage that provides information about the stones. Although many rune stones have information signs, some are missing, and even where signs are present, they may contain outdated information.

– With digital signage in the app, I can update the runestone text, reading, and interpretation at any time, and the user always gets the most up-to-date information about the runestone, she explains.

Currently there are about 1300 of the 2000 runestones found in Sweden. At the moment, all runestones are available in Gästrikland, Medelpad, Hälsingland, Uppland, Södermanland, Västmanland, Värmland and Närke. Runestones available in Götaland will be added to the app later this fall.

Later, users will also be able to report if something in the app is wrong, for example by sending a photo. The app, which can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play, will also be available in English in due course.

What you didn’t know about rune stones

Most of the known runestones were erected around the 11th century. The oldest ones discovered date back to the 4th century and can be found in the State Historical Museum, such as the Kylver Stone. There are big differences between the different types of runestones, especially the newer ones often have more personal and more banal messages like “Harald carved this stone”. On older stones and objects, various forms of incantations and spells have been carved with more mystical purposes in mind, according to some on the basis of so-called gematria – number magic.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

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https://nordictimes.com/the-nordics/sweden/police-warn-of-persistently-high-violence-in-sweden/

Sweden

Police warn of persistently high violence in Sweden

organized crime

Published today 13:35
– By Editorial Staff
The current extensive gang-related violence is now to be considered a permanent feature in Sweden, according to police.
3 minute read
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

After a series of shootings and explosions in the Stockholm area in recent weeks, police do not want to speak of a temporary wave of violence. Instead, the regional police chief describes the situation as a “constantly high level of violence in Sweden”.

Upplands Väsby, Kallhäll, Viksjö, Bromma and Sätra – the list of places in the Stockholm area that have been hit by shootings and bombings recently continues to grow.

Most recently, during the night leading to Wednesday, an extensive police operation was underway in Viksjö, northwest of Stockholm, after a shooting at a gas station where two people were injured. Shortly before, on August 25, two people were shot dead in a car in a parking lot in nearby Kallhäll. Police cannot yet answer whether there are connections between the various incidents.

Despite the recent concentration of violent crimes in northern Stockholm, police do not want to use the term “wave of violence” to describe the development.

— I would rather say that we have seen a number of completed crimes in a short time and with a clear geographical limitation to northern Stockholm, says Magnus Mowitz, regional police chief for Stockholm north, on Swedish public television SVT’s morning show.

He emphasizes that police have simultaneously succeeded in preventing a series of planned violent crimes, but acknowledges the grim reality:

— The term wave of violence is not something we use, however we can see that there are violent crimes that continuously occur. We have a constantly high level of violence in Sweden, he states.

Thousands of gang criminals

Before the 1990s, gang crime was essentially an unknown phenomenon in Sweden, where the organized crime that did exist was mainly linked to motorcycle gangs and where violent confrontations with firearms and explosives on open streets were virtually non-existent. Sweden was long one of Europe’s safest countries with one of the world’s lowest murder rates.

Over the past three decades, however, the situation has changed dramatically. In pace with unlimited mass immigration from conflict-affected areas in the Third World, criminal networks have been established in suburbs around the country.

From being concentrated in the metropolitan areas’ vulnerable neighborhoods, gang crime has now spread to virtually all Swedish cities of any size, and police estimate that today the number of active individuals in the criminal networks amounts to more than 14,000 individuals – from Malmö in the south to Kiruna in the north.

Turning over multi-billion amounts annually

The criminal networks are not only engaged in spectacular bombings and murders. Drug trafficking still forms the backbone of the operations, but the gangs have significantly diversified their criminal activities. Extortion of business owners, particularly in the suburbs, has become increasingly common, and welfare fraud through fake assistance companies and other schemes drain billions from taxpayers every year.

Human trafficking, arms smuggling, theft gangs and receiving stolen goods are also part of the repertoire, while money laundering occurs through real estate investments, currency exchange offices and cryptocurrencies.

Exactly how much money organized crime turns over each year is impossible to answer, but estimates from police suggest it amounts to approximately €9-14 billion annually.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/the-nordics/sweden/swedish-young-bulls-receive-feed-supplement-to-reduce-methane-emissions/

Sweden

Swedish young bulls receive feed supplement to reduce methane emissions

The exaggerated climate crisis

Published yesterday 7:23
– By Editorial Staff
Anna Hessle from SLU (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) admits herself that it becomes a bit strange
2 minute read
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

Swedish young bulls are receiving a new feed supplement to reduce their methane emissions. The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) is currently testing the product in Skara, Sweden.

In Skara, researchers are investigating whether a new feed additive can reduce young bulls’ methane emissions and make the animals more “environmentally friendly”. The feed supplement is manufactured in Sweden and is reportedly significantly cheaper than other alternatives available on the market.

Anna Hessle from SLU acknowledges that the climate discussion has gotten the “wrong focus” but still hopes for good results.

— It has become somewhat the case that ruminants have been portrayed as climate villains, even though I personally perhaps think that’s a bit of the wrong focus since it’s really about us having to reduce our fossil fuel emissions, she tells tax-funded Radio Sweden (SR) and continues:

— But then the industry can show its good will by trying to reduce emissions even if one might bluntly think that the problems lie elsewhere.

British anger against Arla

The food industry, particularly regarding dairy cows, has long been singled out and accused of being a so-called environmental villain. Recently, the feed supplement Bovaer was developed, with help from financing by billionaire Bill Gates, which is also supposed to reduce cows’ methane emissions by making them fart and burp less.

Danish-Swedish dairy company Arla, for example, began giving it to British cows last year, which led to very harsh criticism from the public and many calls to boycott the company. Bovaer is also used for Swedish cows, but currently to a lesser extent than in the United Kingdom.

When the bulls are slaughtered at the beginning of next year, the project in Skara will be evaluated, but results are already visible when measuring methane emissions in the animals’ exhaled air.

— That can be seen in the preliminary data we’ve received, says Hessle.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/the-nordics/sweden/somali-teen-humiliated-8-year-old-in-robbery-looked-like-a-racist/

Sweden

Somali teen humiliated 8-year-old in robbery: “Looked like a racist”

Deteriorating safety

Published 25 August 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Police in Västerbotten County, northern Sweden, confirm they have seen an increase in humiliation robberies over the past year.
3 minute read
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

An 8-year-old boy in Umeå, northern Sweden, was subjected to a humiliating robbery where he was forced to remove all his clothes and do push-ups. The 16-year-old perpetrator, originally from Somalia, claims in police interrogation that he targeted the little boy because he “looked like a racist”.

The incident occurred on a Saturday afternoon in May when the 8-year-old boy was out cycling. A 16-year-old from Somalia stopped him on the bike path and threatened to call his friends if the boy didn’t obey his orders.

The child was then forced to strip completely naked and perform push-ups while the 16-year-old played music and cycled around him. Eventually, the 8-year-old managed to flee home through the forest – still naked.

The boy’s father Lenny describes the traumatic moment when his son came home.

— He comes running in completely naked. ‘I’ve been robbed, help’. He’s in a state of panic, says the father, describing the course of events further to Swedish public radio SR.

— It’s a guy, a youth who chases after him and forces him to give up his bike, bike helmet, socks, underwear, shirt. So he’s completely naked and forced to do push-ups.

The parents immediately alerted police who found the boy’s clothes at the scene, but the perpetrator had already disappeared.

Wanted to “beat up” 9-year-old

The weekend after, the boy and his father saw the 16-year-old at a football match. Police were alerted again but arrived only after the match had ended and everyone had left. With the help of the description, Hassan, as the 16-year-old is named, could be identified and arrested.

It then emerged that Hassan had tried to take the bike from another boy, nine years old, two days earlier. In interrogation, he stated that he had intended to “beat him up”.

In the police interrogation, Hassan confirms the course of events but doesn’t believe he committed any crime. He says he “just wanted to see the boy’s reaction” and thought he would resist. He then claims that the real victim is himself – and that he felt targeted by the child’s alleged racism.

— He took it as if I was going to rob him because of my skin color. I’m not saying that’s how it is, but it could be. He doesn’t want to talk to me. If you had been there, you would have seen how he behaved. Like a racist! says Hassan in the interrogation and continues:

— He looked like a racist! I think he’ll vote for SD [Sweden Democrats] when he gets older. I don’t know if that’s what he was thinking, but it could be.

Father: “How can someone be so cowardly?”

The boy’s father is very upset about the incident and the Somali’s cowardly behavior.

— How can someone be so cowardly as to target such a young guy just to humiliate. It’s completely insane, says Lenny.

He also believes that the problem with humiliation robberies is no longer just found in major cities:

— It’s not just about Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö and their various areas. But it also exists here in Umeå unfortunately, you can’t turn a blind eye to the problem.

Sweden Democrats leader: “The new Sweden”

Police in Västerbotten county confirm that they have seen an increase in humiliation robberies recently and that they have investigated about ten similar cases in the past year.

Hassan is now being prosecuted for unlawful coercion and unlawful threats. Under current Swedish legislation, however, he cannot be deported as he has been granted Swedish citizenship.

The brutal case has received significant attention on social media where many are horrified by a societal development where even small children risk being subjected to brutal and traumatizing attacks in broad daylight. Sweden Democrats MP Richard Jomshof is among many who have reacted strongly.

“This is the new Sweden, where Swedes have to accept being humiliated and robbed by imported perpetrators, without anyone caring”, he writes among other things.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/the-nordics/sweden/lawyers-and-accountants-help-criminal-networks-in-sweden/

Sweden

Lawyers and accountants help criminal networks in Sweden

organized crime

Published 22 August 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Respectable professional groups often sell services to criminal networks for money laundering and shell companies.
2 minute read
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

False identities, corruption and violence. Organized crime is becoming increasingly sophisticated and poses a growing threat to Swedish society, shows a new situation report from 14 Swedish authorities.

Drug crimes, fraud, environmental crimes and organized theft are identified as the greatest societal threats from organized crime. Behind the crimes lies an advanced criminal infrastructure where gang criminals use false identities and shell companies to launder their criminal proceeds.

The new inter-agency situation report reveals how criminals’ strategies are becoming increasingly advanced. Violence and threats, corruption as well as countermeasures against authority operations are used systematically to protect criminal activities.

— We see, among other things, that crimes that affect many people and companies in everyday life, volume crimes, are very organized and often carried out very professionally, so we cannot just investigate these crimes away, they must also be prevented, says Johan Olsson, chairman of the operational council and head of the Swedish police’s national operational department (NOA).

Lawyers and accountants help criminals

The report identifies five crime areas that contain all six types of criminal infrastructure: drug crimes, fraud, environmental crimes, organized theft crime and crimes against international sanctions. Almost as serious are VAT fraud, excise tax crimes and organized crime in working life.

A central part of the criminal structure is so-called enablers – people who sell their services to criminal networks. This involves everything from money laundering and transport to arranging companies and false identities. According to the report, these enablers are often found among professional groups such as lawyers, brokers and accountants.

The authorities warn that criminals are expected to adapt further to avoid prosecution. Several worrying trends are already visible: criminals use foundations and non-profit associations for their activities, protect assets through false documents and identities, and move operations abroad – particularly to countries without extradition agreements with Sweden.

— The situation report shows the importance of countering the criminal economy, more efforts against enablers and strengthening international cooperation in crime fighting. Both in the authorities’ individual work and in the inter-agency initiative, several initiatives are ongoing to strengthen efforts against the problem picture described in the situation report, explains Olsson.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

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