News

Work permit holders hunt for jobs as Northvolt job cuts loom

2024-10-07 12:12 1,700 of the employees as Northvolt's battery factory in Skellefteå are work permit holders, according to figures from the Swedish Migration Agency.Now those workers have at best just three months to find new work in Sweden — and if they don't, they will have to leave the country.Harrys Melvin Raja from India, whose permit will expire in little over a month, tells Swedish Radio News he's not sure how he'll find a job in time.

Finding ways to get international talent to stay in Sweden

2024-10-07 11:33 There are 11,000 international students in Stockholm, but according to Stockholm Academic Forum, less than a third of international students in Sweden remain in the country after they finish their studies.This autumn, 250 masters students in Stockholm are attending a programme that is aimed at helping them get a foot on the Swedish labour market after their exam.”It has been really difficult to find a job, which is why I signed up for the programme. I am really hoping to know what I am doing wrong,” says Noorjahan Jemaa from Tunisia.

Multiple shootings in Sweden over the weekend

2024-10-07 11:15 One person was injured in a shooting at a shopping centre in Kungsbacka in western Sweden on Sunday afternoon.Meanwhile in Malmö, a man in his 50s was killed early on Monday morning in his apartment.Police have arrested suspects in both cases.

Rising number of young people taken into care over nitrous oxide abuse

2024-10-07 03:01 The number of young people taken into care due to nitrous oxide abuse has increased in recent years, reports Swedish Radio's Kaliber programme.Nitrous oxide or laughing gas is currently legal to buy and sell, however new legislation is in the pipeline to prevent abuse.Abusing nitrous oxide can cause a range of injuries and health issues, among them frostbite and recurring numbness.

”Many boat refugees didn't know if this was Sweden or not”

2024-10-04 16:30 During a few months in the autumn of 1944, some 11,000 refugees from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania came over the Baltic Sea to the island of Gotland, off the Swedish coast.Kerstin Blomberg has interviewed many of those who came, as well as those who took them in.”The leader of the rescue boat told me they put the torch on the Swedish flag, so the refugees could see it was Sweden,” she says.

Sweden's glaciers shrinking at a record pace

2024-10-04 15:48 The melt-off recorded at Sweden's glaciers has been significantly higher this year compared to earlier years.At Kebnekaise's Great Glacier, the melt-off was five times higher than the average over the past decade.Glaciology professor Nina Kirchner warns that the vast majority of Sweden's 250 or so glaciers could disappear if global warming continues.

'Home is where the art is' at Affordable Art Fair Stockholm

2024-10-04 15:31 One of Sweden's biggest art events of the year, the Affordable Art Fair Stockholm is currently taking place this weekend where visitors including curious first-time buyers can choose between thousands of pieces of works of art from nine hundred kronor to a maximum price tag of SEK 90,000.As ever, since its inception in London 25 years ago, the aim of the affordable art fair is to make contemporary art accessible to everyone, whatever the budget. But have attitudes really changed in the industry?”There has been a shift, no doubt. Of course I mean with every business there's always these old traditions that withhold and maybe the prejudice, but that's really not what the affordable art fair is about, we are about helping people to learn more,” says Stockholm Affordable Art Fair director Carl Wilhelm Hirsch.

Union: 235 white collar jobs to go at Northvolt, mostly in Stockholm and Västerås

2024-10-04 11:30 It's been confirmed that at least 235 white-collar jobs will be cut at battery manufacturer Northvolt, the trade union Unionen tells Swedish Radio News.Negotiations between the various unions and the troubled company have now been partly completed.Negotiations over job losses in Skellefteå — where most of the cuts are to be made — are still ongoing, as are talks with the metal workers union IF Metall.

False security: Solar panel circuit breakers can cause fires

2024-10-04 03:28 Special circuit breakers that are supposed to increase safety for emergency service personnel during fires where there are solar panels, can have the opposite effect if they don't work properly, Swedish Radio News reports.A fire at a wool factory in Östersund started due to one of these circuit breakers, and a large number had to be replaced following a fire at a property in Vänersborg.Cecilia Axelsson, an electricity safety expert at the Swedish Installation Federation, says there are several factors that can make these circuit breakers unsafe.

Jonelle Twum wants to make Black experiences visible in Sweden

2024-10-03 16:50 A new cultural space, Black Archives Sweden, centered around blackness and lived experiences of Afro Swedes has opened up in Malmö, with the aim to increase representations of black Swedes in cultural contexts and in their own words. Afro Swedes can contribute their own photos and stories to the archive, which are then used for talks, workshops and more. ”It all started when I came back home after studying abroad and noticing the lack of cultural institutions for black people and centered around critical discussions around blackness and antiracism,” says Black Archives Sweden founder Jonelle Twum.