Sweden

Like Finland, the country took a major step towards NATO membership on Wednesday, after their PMs said Russia's invasion of Ukraine had changed "the entire security landscape" of Europe and "dramatically shaped the mindset" in the Nordic countries

Sweden's operational PV capacity reached 1.59GW at the end of December, up from 1.09GW a year earlier, according to the Swedish Energy Agency; the country has about 92.360 PV installations, with about 26.500 added last year

The country will become the 22nd country to remove all entry requirements, as the current ban on travellers from outside the EU/EEA, which expires today, will not be extended

The Migration Agency has asked for help from "anyone who can provide it" to cope with the flow of Ukrainian refugees; 3.500 Ukrainians have already applied for asylum in the country, of whom 900 have received help from the agency to find accommodation

Swedish carmaker Volvo has suspended production and sales of its commercial vehicles at its plant in Kaluga, Russia, as sign of dissent towards war; the factory employs 700 people and a further 600 are involved in sales, maintenance and repairs

The country's position on not joining NATO was reiterated by the prime minister, who noted that Russia does not have an alarming threat and military activity on Sweden's borders

Muslim migrant families have protested against the state social services for unfairly taking their children from their homes; many claim there are different criteria for the children of Muslim migrants and those of Swedes

The country is trialling a system to improve its emergency response services; it features drones delivering defibrillators, with drone developer Everdrone collaborating with researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm from 2019

Police are looking for 10.000 migrants with deportation orders, according to a report by the public broadcaster Sveriges Television; according to the head of the national border police the problem is that there are no detention centres for deportations

With Finland and Norway, the country will cull part of the wolf population to control their diffusion; as the hunters have already killed most of their annual target of 27 wolves, several conservation groups have appealed to the EU to take action

Ikea to rise its prices by an average 9% due to ongoing raw materials price peaks as well as supply chain and transportation disruptions

National producer price index rose in November at the fastest annual rate in 30 years, up 18,1% year-on-year, according to Statistics Sweden

In the South of the country, a reporter filmed a 'mountain of plastic' of Icelandic origin that was never recycled – although consumers and companies in Iceland had paid for it to be so and it probably dates back to 2016