Electric scooter rental company hacked – data leaked
The electric scooter company Ryde has had a major data breach where hackers have stolen customer information.
According to the company, all customer accounts are affected and information that has been leaked includes phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth, parts of payment card numbers and payment history, SVT Nyheter has reported.
It was the night before Sunday that the Norwegian electric scooter company discovered that someone unauthorized had gained access to the systems and copied customer data.
A total of 4.5 million customer accounts in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Germany were affected by the breach, of which 1.6 million accounts were in Norway, according to the newspaper VG.
Ryde has reported the data breach to the Norwegian Data Protection Authority and is urging its customers to be extra vigilant.
Swedish vocabulary: kundkonton ‒ customer accounts
Woman caught fire at Visby Medieval Week
A woman in her 30s caught fire during a show at the Medieval Week in Visby late on Thursday night.
The woman was participating in a fire show in Nordergravar in Visby when, at 11pm, she suddenly started burning.
She was first taken to Visby Hospital and then, on Friday morning, to Uppsala University Hospital for treatment of serious but not life-threatening injuries, P4 Gotland reported.
The woman was conscious when she was taken to hospital.
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A man in his 30s who tried to put out the fire was also burned, but very slightly, according to the police.
Since the accident occurred during a fire show, the incident may be investigated as a workplace accident.
"It was probably a question of performing a job task, and therefore it is something that could become a workplace accident," police spokesman Robert Sennerdal told Swedish newswire TT.
Swedish vocabulary: fattade eld ‒ caught fire
Electricity prices rise to historically high levels
Electricity prices have risen to historically high levels this summer, new statistics from the price comparison site Elskling show.
Combined electricity prices in June and July were the second highest ever – only during the electricity crisis in the summer of 2022 was electricity more expensive. In June of this year, for example, spot prices for electricity were between 150 and 1,400 percent higher, compared to the same month last year.
Krisztian Horvath, electricity price analyst at Elskling, describes a "perfect storm" caused by several interacting factors.
"Hydropower reservoirs are being filled very slowly, so there are poorly filled reservoirs in both Sweden and Norway. Nuclear power has been under review and this year in particular has been particularly strained," he said.
In addition, there are external factors that indirectly play a role. The uncertainty surrounding the Strait of Hormuz affects global gas prices and the extreme heat in Europe this summer has driven up demand for electricity on the continent.
"Cooling does not affect Swedish consumers directly because we do not have AC to the same extent. But since we are connected to all of Europe, we are indirectly affected by what happens there. All the cooling that they operate indirectly affects our prices."
According to Krisztian Horvath, the vast majority of consumers still have variable electricity contracts, but for those who have quarter-hourly or hourly prices, electricity is most expensive between 7 and 9 in the morning, and between 5 and 9 in the evening.
"Prices tend to be lower at other times of the day. The pattern changes somewhat during the summer as we are out more and not at home consuming electricity."
Swedish vocabulary: konsumenter ‒ consumers
New leak causes acute water shortage in Örnsköldsvik
There is an acute water shortage in Örnsköldsvik after a new leak in a water main.
Water levels are dropping in the reservoirs that supply the central town and surrounding areas with water. Residents are urged to use water very sparingly.
During the extensive water leak a week ago, the municipal water company Miva warned that more leaks in the main water main could occur.
The affected towns are Örnsköldsvik and adjacent areas such as Domsjö, Hörnett, Sund, Själevad, Ås and Haffsta. Tanks with emergency water have been placed.
Work to fix the leak is ongoing and is expected to be completed on Saturday evening.
Swedish vocabulary: reservoarerna ‒ the resevoirs
Swedish cows and moose fart millions of tons of methane
Cows that belch and fart methane into the atmosphere have long been singled out as climate villains. A new study shows that wild animals also fart unprecedented amounts of the harmful greenhouse gas.
To get a picture of how much methane wild animals such as deer, moose and llamas emit, researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Jena, Germany, have used data on the size of animal populations and combined them with estimates of methane emissions based on body weight and diet.
According to their calculations, wild animals emit three million tons of methane each year. More than half comes from just six deer species, with the white-tailed deer the absolute worst. The common Swedish moose is far behind, but is still second on the emissions list.
Three million tons may sound like a lot, but it is no more than what Swedish animals in Swedish agriculture emit annually. In 2024, methane emissions from Swedish animals were just over three million tons, according to statistics from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. At the time, this corresponded to about half of the emissions from the Swedish agricultural sector..
Methane is a greenhouse gas that strongly contributes to global warming, but it has also been called the emergency brake of climate change because it disappears from the atmosphere much faster than carbon dioxide.
Although animals are not responsible for the worst emissions (the majority of methane emissions comes from leaks in infrastructure for, e.g., fossil fuels and waste landfills), there is a lot of research underway on how to reduce methane emissions from domestic cows through diet, among other things.
Swedish vocabulary: att prutta ‒ to fart