Sweden steps up rules against Russian shadow fleet, commission considers banning international adoptions and it’s snake season. Here’s Sweden’s news on Monday.
Sweden steps up rules against Russian shadow fleet, commission considers banning international adoptions and it’s snake season. Here’s Sweden’s news on Monday.
Sweden steps up rules against Russian shadow fleet, commission considers banning international adoptions and it’s snake season. Here’s Sweden’s news on Monday.
Sweden considers banning international adoptions
Sweden’s state adoption commission is set to present its inquiry into international adoptions on Monday.
The inquiry’s leader, civil law professor Anna Singer, has said that the inquiry will include a ban on international adoptions, a fund for adoptees to allow them to travel to their country of origin, and an official apology from the Swedish state.
“In my opinion, international adoptions are no longer a sustainable solution for children as a group, and it’s not possible to guarantee that there are no irregularities in the countries Sweden collaborates with. My proposal is that the mediation of children across national borders ceases,” she wrote in Dagens Nyheter (DN).
International adoptions have taken place in Sweden since the 1950s, and despite Swedish parents often being told that the adoptions are entirely legal, this has not always been the case.
“The inquiry shows that there have been irregularities in Swedish international adoption activities,” Singer wrote. “Everything from child trafficking to undocumented consent from the child’s guardian.”
There have also been “shortcomings in documentation,” she wrote, which mean that it has not been possible to ensure that adoptions have occurred legally, been in the child’s best interest, or given the child the opportunity to find out about their biological family or where they come from.
Swedish vocabulary: internationella adoptioner ‒ international adoptions
Sweden steps up rules against Russia’s Baltic ‘shadow fleet’
Over the weekend, Sweden announced new rules upping checks on foreign vessels in the Baltic from July 1st, reinforcing a crackdown on Russia’s “shadow fleet” of tankers deployed to circumvent sanctions on its oil trade.
Since the Western-led sanctions imposed after its 2022 all-out invasion of Ukraine, Russia has been relying on hundreds of such ships, that operate under murky ownership and dodgy insurance.
European governments frequently blame the vessels for damaging ‒ deliberately or not ‒ undersea cables, and of posing a maritime environmental threat.
The Swedish coast guard and maritime authorities will be tasked with scrutinising insurance details not only of ships docking in Swedish ports, “but also those crossing Swedish territorial waters, or its exclusive economic zone”, which extends some 200 nautical miles from shore. (AFP)
Swedish vocabulary: en skuggflotta ‒ a shadow fleet
Swedish property prices rose in May ‒ but there’s a downward trend
Property prices rose one percent in May, according to new figures from SBAB. However, once seasonal effects are removed from the figures, the general trend shows falling prices.
“The property market has been very cool over the spring,” SBAB chief economist Robert Boije told the TT newswire. “It’s good that it’s becoming a bit more lively, but when we look at the underlying developments we can see that the market still doesn’t really want to recover.”
Property prices normally rise in May, remain stagnant or fall in June and July before finally taking off again when Swedes return from their summer holidays in August.
“We had a similar development last month. We think that the shaky situation in the rest of the world is still making itself known. It will be interesting to see if we get the hop in August we usually get,” Boije said.
Swedish vocabulary: vaknat till liv litegrann ‒ becoming a bit more lively (literally: woken to life a bit)
Warm weather means that Sweden’s snakes are waking up
The Swedish huggorm, known in English as a common adder or common viper, emerges from hibernation at this time of year when temperatures rise.
They are the only venomous snake native to Sweden and can be found in almost the whole country, even north of the Arctic circle.
Their bites are painful but not fatal for humans (although they do still require medical treatment), but they can pose a risk to dogs, and in rarer cases cats.
You can protect your pets by keeping them on their lead in areas with a high number of snakes. If you’re playing fetch with a ball or stick, throw the ball behind you onto the path you’ve already walked on so your dog doesn’t run into an areas where a snake is hiding.
If your pet is bitten, try not to panic, and make sure to visit a vet. Carry your dog rather than letting it walk or run so that the venom does not spread throughout its body.
Swedish vocabulary: huggormsbett ‒ viper or adder bite