In September, the management of Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt issued layoff notices to 1,600 employees. After negotiations it is now clear that 338 employees will lose their jobs.
Negotiations between the employer and union representatives have been concluded, and Unionen confirms that hundreds of employees will be laid off from the once-hyped battery manufacturer.
–It has been a month of difficult negotiations and decisions made under enormous time pressure for our elected representatives, which we have been very critical of. But these tough decisions have to be made to secure the future of the company, Shaneika Jeffreys, vice president of the trade union Unionen at Northvolt in Skellefteå, told Swedish state broadcaster SVT.
In total, 180 employees will be laid off at Northvolt One in Skellefteå, in addition to another 124 employees in Skellefteå, 20 in Stockholm and 14 in Västerås who work for the subsidiary Northvolt Expansion.
–The anxiety of not knowing has been hard for many, so we are pleased to have concluded the negotiations so that the affected members no longer have to wait for a final decision from the employer, continues Jeffreys.
Negotiations between Northvolt and the trade union If Metall are still ongoing and although it is not clear how many people will be laid off, there is great concern that nearly 1,300 more employees will lose their jobs.
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The number of pickup and delivery points in the Chinese megacity of Shenzhen now exceeds 10,000, an increase of more than 300 percent since the end of June.
Chinese autonomous vehicle company Pony.ai presented ambitious expansion plans in connection with its quarterly report on Tuesday. The goal is to triple the number of robotaxi vehicles to over 3,000 before the end of 2026.
Pony.ai currently operates 961 robotaxis and aims to reach 1,000 vehicles by year-end. The aggressive expansion is enabled by a technical breakthrough where the company's seventh-generation robotaxi has achieved city-level profitability in Guangzhou, southern China.
Just two weeks after the commercial launch in the city, each Gen-7 vehicle averages 23 orders per day. Material costs for the autonomous systems have dropped by 70 percent compared to the previous generation, with an additional 20 percent reduction planned for 2026.
Driverless operations in Shanghai
The company offers commercial robotaxi services in the major Chinese cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. In Shanghai, Pony.ai became the first company in July to launch fully driverless commercial robotaxis, initially in the Pudong district areas of Jinqiao and Huamu.
To accelerate expansion, Pony.ai has established partnerships with Xihu Group and Sunlight Mobility, where partners finance vehicle purchases while the company provides the technology. The model reduces capital requirements and enables faster growth.
Traffic intersection in Shenzhen, southern China. Photo: The Nordic Times
Global reach
Beyond its home market, Pony.ai is expanding to eight countries, including Qatar and Singapore. Partnerships with the global ride-sharing platforms Bolt and Uber will facilitate its establishment in new markets.
In parallel, the company is developing self-driving trucks together with SANY Truck. The fourth-generation Robotruck is designed for mass production with the first fleet rollout planned for 2026.
During the third quarter, the company's revenue increased significantly, driven primarily by growing demand for robotaxi services in China's major cities.
Ordering and riding in a self-driving taxi from Pony.ai doesn't differ much from ordering a regular taxi – except that no one is sitting behind the wheel when the car pulls up.
The journey begins in the company's app PonyPilot or via a mini-program in the Chinese messaging app WeChat. Prices are equivalent to regular taxi fares in each respective city, and the service is available daily between 7:30 AM and 10:00 PM. When the car approaches, it automatically identifies the passenger via Bluetooth and unlocks the doors.
Before getting in, you can adjust the air conditioning via the app. Once inside the car, you sit down, fasten your seatbelt, and say aloud "start trip" to begin the journey. A screen in the car displays travel information, music selection, and climate controls in one place.
During the ride, 34 sensors – including nine LiDAR units, 14 cameras, and four millimeter-wave radars – monitor the surroundings in 360 degrees with a range of up to 650 meters. The technology enables the car to navigate through dense city traffic, tunnels, and complex intersections.
From a central monitoring center, a single person can simultaneously track up to a dozen cars and intervene if necessary, even though the cars are completely driverless in traffic.
Since the robotaxi cars require an app for booking and don't accept cash payments, this means – like many other modern collective transportation services – that the journey is tracked/recorded and cannot be made anonymously. However, it's usually possible to hail a regular taxi on the street in China and pay cash for those who prefer that option.
An increasing number of children in Sweden are living in poverty. New calculations from Save the Children Sweden show that 276,000 children are economically vulnerable – 100,000 more than previous measures had indicated. Over the past year, an additional 16,000 children have been added to this group.
The organization has developed a new method for measuring child poverty. Unlike the previous measure, which was based on the national norm for social assistance, the new calculation is based on the Swedish Consumer Agency's data on households' basic consumption.
— The trend is going in completely the wrong direction, says Samira Abutaleb Rosenlundh, expert at Save the Children Sweden, to publicly funded broadcaster SVT.
According to Save the Children Sweden, the national norm has been significantly eroded over recent decades, as it has only been adjusted based on the consumer price index. This has meant that it no longer reflects households' actual costs, particularly after the price increases of recent years.
When the organization instead uses the Swedish Consumer Agency's calculations, a considerably darker picture emerges. The results show that one in eight children in Sweden lives in a household that cannot afford to cover its basic needs.
The report is based on income statistics from Statistics Sweden and includes households with children aged 0–17 years.
The Swedish government is presenting a legislative proposal that would give the police the ability to identify individuals using artificial intelligence. The technology is intended to be used to more quickly locate suspects, wanted persons, and crime victims.
Swedish Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer (Moderate Party) announced at a press conference that the government has decided on a legislative proposal that would allow police to use AI-based facial recognition in real time.
— We are presenting a powerful new tool, said Strömmer, who also emphasized the importance of camera surveillance in stopping violence and investigating crimes.
Swedish Minister for Civil Defence Erik Slottner (Christian Democrats) stressed that the technology could dramatically transform police work. What previously took several weeks can now be done "in a matter of seconds," according to the minister.
— Through real-time facial recognition, we can find criminals, abducted children or wanted terrorists, Slottner explained.
Currently, AI-based facial recognition in public spaces is essentially prohibited in Sweden. The government's proposal would give police broader exemptions from the ban in order to combat serious crime.
The Liberal Party's Martin Melin specified that the technology would be used to locate victims, prevent serious violent crimes, investigate offenses such as murder and rape, and enforce sentences.
According to the latest report from Försäkringskassan, over 4,000 gang criminals are estimated to have been granted benefits totaling approximately €320 million.
A new report from Försäkringskassan (the Swedish Social Insurance Agency) shows that around 4,000 individuals assessed by police as actively involved in gang crime receive their primary income through Swedish welfare systems. The report has sparked strong reactions within the government.
According to the report, the benefits primarily consist of sickness benefits, disability benefits, and activity support.
In total, approximately €320 million has been paid out in recent years to around 4,000 individuals in the gang criminal environment.
Among the benefit-related criminal schemes identified in the report are fake medical certificates and so-called sham separations, where couples register as separated but in practice continue living together.
Anna Tenje, Swedish Minister for Elderly Affairs and Social Insurance, has reacted strongly to the findings.
In a comment to the Swedish news agency TT, she says: – This is astonishing and deeply provocative. Our collective welfare funds should go to those with the greatest need. Instead, they end up in criminals' pockets and fuel gang crime.
Anna Tenje emphasizes that the findings confirm a problem the government has long been aware of, and points to several measures aimed at stopping welfare fraud linked to the gang criminal environment.
According to Försäkringskassan, several billion has been paid out to gang criminals in recent years. Press photo: Riksbanken
Stricter regulations
An important component, according to Anna Tenje, is the new legislation on confidentiality-breaking provisions that will take effect in December this year. This tool is intended to make it easier for government agencies to share information with each other.
She also highlights efforts against fake medical certificates and a stricter sanction system with benefit blocks for individuals who repeatedly commit welfare fraud.
The government estimates that between €1.3 and €1.7 billion is paid out incorrectly from welfare systems each year, of which approximately half is assessed to constitute outright welfare fraud.
– This is about maintaining the legitimacy of the systems. Hard-working people must be able to trust that the money goes to the right people. If we are to break the gangs, we must cut off this supply of our collective tax funds, says Tenje.
Det är djupt provocerande att 4000 gängkriminella lever på bidrag för att finansiera sin kriminella livsstil. Det kommer vi aldrig acceptera. Hårt arbetande människor ska kunna lita på att deras skattepengar går till den som har behov av och rätt till det, inte till kriminella. pic.twitter.com/VrjOUQs7sm
Nils Öberg, director general of Försäkringskassan, says in a press release that the report shows how gang criminals exploit the social insurance system to create a "facade of legitimate income".
– We see increasing gang crime that attacks the entire society, and we are now working on a broad front to secure the welfare system. This report is a result of government agencies now being able to share information with each other to a much greater extent than before. This makes it easier for us to break down the criminal economy, he says in a comment to TV4, owned by Norwegian media company Schibsted.
The Swedish police's latest situation assessment shows that around 67,500 people are part of the Swedish gang environment.
Of these, 17,500 are classified as active gang criminals, while the remainder are assessed as having some form of connection to the networks.
