Swedish News:

Gender neutral Sweden enforces women-only swim hours this summer. Zlatan likes the hype. Border ID and check extension. 

  • The 1950s look may be coming back ... in some ways.

  • Sweden enforces women-only swim hours
    In an effort to adapt to a growing Muslim population, the historically egalitarian Sweden is now offering women-only hours at 13 of its 100 largest municipal swimming pools. In the traditionally Christian country’s attempt to respect different religious practices, the debate lies primarily with Sweden’s work toward gender equality. In cities with high multicultural populations, more pools are expected to adjust their swimmers’ hours as the swim season progresses. The heated debate also brings education into the discussion as girls and boys alike need to learn to swim in Sweden: All children must have the opportunity to learn to swim to get a passing grade in physical education — so they can advance to high school.

  • Zlatan Ibrahimovic

  • Zlatan likes the hype
    Zlatan Ibrahimovic likes the spotlight, even if it means offending his fans. The ambitious and provocative Swedish soccer star’s talent supersedes his arrogance, and after scoring 50 goals for his club in France this season, Ibrahimovic, 34, is a free agent. As he considers his future, the world awaits his decision. And he knows it: "I want you to still write a lot of stories, I get excited when I see them, because I want to see who is making up the best story," he told reporters on June 1. "When I'm tired of it, I'll let you know where I will go." But the striker made it clear he’s not interested in returning to his home turf: "I'm too good for the Allsvenskan (Swedish league)," he added.

  • The Oresund Bridge, Öresundsbron, is a combined two-track rail and four-lane road bridge across the Öresund. The bridge-tunnel is the longest combined road and rail bridge in Europe and connects the Danish capitol Copenhagen with Malmö. The bridge is the longest border crossing bridge in the world. It opened July 2, 2000.

  • Border ID and check extension
    Sweden, together with Denmark, Germany, Austria and France, announced on June 1 an extension of their border controls, in an ongoing effort to limit the number of migrants sweeping into their nations. “We have to take care of our own borders until a joint solution within the EU has been found,” said Danish Integration Minister Inger Stojberg. The five countries requested an extension until November 12 because Greece still isn’t managing its border with Turkey, where more than one million people have entered Europe before making their way north. The border controls, which were introduced as a temporary measure in Sweden in November 2015 during a record influx of migrants and asylum seekers, will now run at least through November 2016, Swedish Interior Minister Anders Ygeman confirmed. The number of people seeking asylum in Sweden has dropped significantly since the border controls were introduced in November, averaging fewer than 500 a week, compared to almost 10,000 last fall.