Saab's surveillance aircraft may become NATO standard
The NATO defence alliance plans to replace its fleet of Awacs planes with Swedish company Saab's Global Eye surveillance plane, Reuters has reported, citing four people with knowledge of the matter.
The information caused the stock to surge.
According to Reuters, the decision will be announced at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, on July 7-8. Both NATO and Saab have declined to comment to Reuters.
Today, NATO has 14 Awacs planes that have been used since 1982. They are based at Geilenkirchen Air Base in Germany and have been widely used for NATO's various surveillance missions over the years.
Global Eye competes with the American Boeing E-7 Wedgetail, which is based on the 737 passenger plane.
Last year, NATO abandoned earlier plans to buy six Wedgetails after its largest customer – the US Defence Department – scrapped plans to buy 26 such planes in favour of relying more on satellites.
However, under pressure from Congress, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told a congressional committee in May that the Pentagon was pushing to reinstate the aircraft in the budget.
At the end of May, news broke that Canada had begun negotiations to buy Saab's Global Eye surveillance and command system.
The negotiations will include determining how many planes will be delivered. But Micael Johansson, Saab's CEO, said at the time that it would be about six planes.
It also means that Canada has rejected competing offers from the US.
Saab's Gripen fighter aircraft is also included as one of the possible options in another possible deal with Canada, which wants to replace its older American aircraft.
The Swedish Armed Forces also use Global Eye, of which one of the three aircraft ordered has already been delivered to the Air Force.
Global Eye is based on the Canadian aircraft manufacturer Bombardier's Global 6 500 model.
Swedish vocabulary: ett stridsflygplan ‒ a fighter plane
Risk of unjustifiably high electricity grid fees
Your electricity grid bill may be unjustifiably high, the Swedish Competition Authority has warned.
The current system means that electricity grid companies are allowed to charge as if they are constantly building new facilities.
The Swedish Competition Authority has now publicly told the electricity grid companies that they have their eyes on them.
"There is a clear risk that the price will not be fair. Therefore, we want to communicate what we see to the companies so that they have a chance to bring up the issue of fair pricing now," said Marie Östman, Director General of the Swedish Competition Authority.
The electricity grid companies are allowed to charge for electricity grid delivery according to rules that the Energy Market Inspectorate determines in advance for four years at a time. A ceiling is set for how much the companies can earn.
"The maximum ceiling for how high revenues the companies can have affects the fees," says David Nordström, Head of Unit for Competition Supervision at the Swedish Competition Authority.
However, the problem is the calculation method, according to the Swedish Competition Authority, which is tasked with examining competition, even for regulated monopolies such as the electricity grid market.
The electricity grid companies are allowed to charge as if they were constantly building completely new facilities, even though the electricity is routed via old poles and wires. The calculation method is called current acquisition value – instead of actual costs, the companies are allowed to calculate as if they were building completely new facilities.
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And construction costs have skyrocketed in relation to the general development, Nordström points out.
He says that the Swedish Competition Authority is now examining the electricity grid companies and their fees for the current period, which extends until 2027, and sees that there is reason for concern.
"The revenue framework has increased for the current period, and we see a risk of unjustifiably high fees.
Swedish vocabulary: elnätsnota ‒ electricity grid bill
Millions of litres of untreated wastewater released in Stockholm in June
Around 25 million litres of untreated wastewater were released in Stockholm in mid-June, Swedish newspaper Dagens ETC has reported.
On Wednesday, it became known that the wastewater treatment plant Syvab released 1.8 million litres of untreated wastewater into Lake Mälaren on June 16th. The cause was heavy rain that a pumping machine could not handle.
Now an incident report shows that on June 15th Stockholm Water and Waste released 25.6 million litres of untreated wastewater and 46.4 million litres of partially treated wastewater at the treatment plant in Henriksdal, according to Dagens ETC.
Authorities have warned against swimming at a large number of Stockholm city bathing areas this summer due to algae blooms.
Alva Engström, environmental and health protection inspector at the City of Stockholm, writes in a comment to the newspaper that it is difficult to assess how the wastewater discharge has affected the quality of the bathing water.
Swedish vocabulary: ett avloppsreningsverk ‒ a wastewater treatment plant
Social Democrats launch "relaxation" podcast with former defence minister reading policy proposals
The Social Democrats are launching a "relaxation podcast" with defence policy spokesperson Peter Hultqvist. For 90 minutes, he reads 531 decisions from the latest Social Democrat congress in a dialect that is said to be comforting.
According to the party, the podcast is intended "for those who want to relax and at the same time take part in the party's politics."
The question is whether the Social Democrats will win votes on the podcast where the former defence minister continuously reads hundreds of policy proposals on welfare, jobs, climate and defence, among other things.
"Who doesn't want to enjoy Peter Hultqvist's sweet voice on a sunny summer day in a hammock?" Social Democrat party secretary Tobias Baudin said in answer to this question, in a text message to Swedish newswire TT.
Swedish vocabulary: en hängmatta ‒ a hammock (literally, a hang-mat)