Sweden Today:

September weather produces early harvest / Wallstrom calls on international community to stop bombing in Aleppo / Patti Smith's first Swedish exhibition / Xenophobia at Gothenburg's Book Fair / Increased penalties for sex crimes /  

  • A panoramic overview over parts of the exhibition area of Göteborg Book Fair. Creative Commons/Mattias Blomgren

  • Gorgeous September weather produces early harvest
    (Cultural) September weather has been exceptionally fine. It’s been a good season for berry and fruit growers throughout Sweden, and southern wine producers are harvesting grapes a little early this year. According to the Board of Agriculture, there are presently 59 Swedish farms growing grapes, but more than half of them are in Skåne, Sweden's wine country.

  • Köpingsbergs Vingård/Vineyard in the Swedish southern region Skåne. www.kopingsberg.se

  • Wallström calls on international community
    (World) Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström has called upon the international community to act in ending indiscriminate bombing in eastern Aleppo. Photographs from the weekend show results of the most intense bombing deployed in the five-year war in Syria. Rescue workers testify that hundreds of dead citizens have been recovered from the rubble, among them many children. "They use fire bombs and bunker busters, and the civilian death toll is comprehensive. The images of children being dug out of the rubble, and the congested hospital with bloody people in piles is unbearable,” wrote Wallström to SVT News.

  • New York based singer-songwriter and visual artist Patti Smith will be exhibiting for the first time in Sweden.

  • Patti Smith exhibits in Sweden
    (Stockholm) New York based singer-songwriter and visual artist Patti Smith will be exhibiting for the first time in Sweden. Smith, who won Sweden's Polar Music Prize in 2011 and has performed many concerts in Sweden, returns with her collection of photos entitled "Eighteen Stations" on exhibit at Stockholm's Kulturhuset Stadsteatern from September 23 to February 2017. "Eighteen Stations" depicts people, ideas, events and trips that have shaped her life, beginning at a small cafe in Greenwich Village which Smith frequents. The photos follow a book she wrote called the "Mind Train," which has been described as a mediation on endings and beginnings and has been called a tour de force. Smith does not consider herself a professional photographer, but admits she has her own way of seeing things.

  • Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström supports an envoy for the UN for the safety of journalists. Wallström has earlier called on the international community to stop bombing in Aleppo.

  • Xenophobia at Gothenburg's Book Fair
    (Cultural) The Gothenburg Book Fair came under fire this year for allowing what is considered a xenophobic and racist publication into the exhibition. Nya Tider ("New Times") has been described as a right wing extremist newspaper. After receiving criticism from the media, the book fair temporarily cancelled Nya Tider’s attendance, but the paper was allowed back into the exhibition when it threatened to sue for breach of contract.

  • Increased penalties for sex crimes
    (National) The sexual offenses committee is calling for strengthened penalties against those who commit the most serious of sex crimes —aggravated sexual assault and sexual assault against children. The penalties could lead to a minimum of six years imprisonment and a maximum of 10. Mari Heidenborg, president of the committee, wants to eliminate the word “rape” because she believes that form of violence does not always occur in sexual abuse and believes the word is misleading, reports SVT.