New elections in Canada

Liberals win Canadian elections – Carney to remain as prime minister

The Liberal Party has won the Canadian election, according to forecasts from CTV and the public service broadcaster CBC. This is the fourth time in a row that the party has been given the confidence of the voters to lead the country.

It is still unclear whether the party will be able to form a majority government or whether they will have to rule in a minority. As of 5 a.m., the Liberals have secured 156 seats compared to the Conservative Party’s 145. To gain a majority in parliament, 172 seats are needed.

The separatist Bloc Québécois, which is only running in Quebec, is leading in 25 districts. The social-democratic NDP is balancing on the fence and has the lead in ten districts. Twelve seats are needed to enter parliament.

The Liberals’ victory means that Mark Carney, who took over from Justin Trudeau in March, will remain as prime minister.

Carney Promises to Protect His Country: "Trump Wants to Break Us So the US Can Own Us"

Canada's newly elected Prime Minister Mark Carney promises to protect his country from Donald Trump, he says in his victory speech.

- The US wants our country, our resources, our water. These are not empty threats. Trump is trying to break us so the US can own us. That will never happen, says Carney.

Within a few days, he and Trump will "discuss the future of two sovereign and independent nations". But the fact is that the "old relationship" with the US is already over after the US's "betrayal", which Mark Carney describes as a tragedy. He sees strengthened ties with Europe and Asia ahead.

In the speech, Carney also says that he understands that millions of Canadians wanted to see a different direction for Canada, but he now promises to work for all residents and urges unity. 

Analysis: Voters flocked to Carney's safe embrace

The election in Canada was more about Donald Trump than about Canada's Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, writes Susan Delacourt in the Toronto Star. On election day, Trump wrote that he himself would be the best leader for Canada.

"Canadians politely said no and gave the victory to Mark Carney and the Liberals - a vote for stability in the midst of the chaos that Trump is trying to create."

In the more conservative Toronto newspaper, Toronto Sun, Mark Lilley writes that the Canadians have changed the frontman in the band, but not the musicians or the songs. He notes that the conservatives were heading for a huge victory until Trump's swing led hordes of voters into Carney's "warm and safe embrace."

"Carney has been incredibly lucky."

In The Globe and Mail, Tony Keller writes that the newly elected prime minister promised during the election campaign to “cut taxes like a Conservative while spending more than a Trudeau Liberal.” Now that the term begins, he calls for honesty.

“Campaigning is about promising, but governing is about choosing.”

Sweden is at war – and the Kremlin’s elite are laughing out loud

The power of Swedish banks has become a security risk

Andreas Cervenka

Reporter and economic commentator

This is a commentary text. Analysis and positions are those of the writer.

Published 12.01

Bank-ID was hit by a massive overload attack last week. Photo: Martina Holmberg/TT

Sweden is at war. This is not the invention of some half-hysterical columnist, but has been confirmed by both the country’s prime minister and the heads of our intelligence services.

However, the enemy does not need to fire a single shot to cause chaos, terror and major damage. The fact is that it is so easy to get to us that the Kremlin’s elite are probably doubling over with laughter at naive Swedes.

Last week it happened again. A massive overload attack knocked out Bank-ID.

It's not just any IT system. A well-worn cliché states that it's not smart to put all your eggs in one basket.

Bank-ID is equivalent to an entire nation's annual egg consumption loaded onto a rickety boat at sea.

Of all registered Swedes between 18 and 67, 99.9 percent (!) use the service. These are figures that make North Korean elections seem like nail-biters.

Without Bank-ID, it's impossible to do banking, whether for private individuals or companies. It's also impossible to pay with Swish or log in to services that are important to what is usually called society; 1177, the Swedish Tax Agency, the Swedish Social Insurance Agency, fill in any authority or company.

7,500 different services are connected, more than doubling in five years. In 2024, 7.6 billion logins were made. According to a survey, Swedes rank Bank-ID as the most important app of all.

In short: if Bank-ID stops, Sweden stops.

Bank-ID is owned by Sweden's banks, where Swedbank, Handelsbanken and SEB together control 75 percent, while four smaller banks own the rest.

It is the banks that decide who can become full citizens by granting them access to an account and a Bank-ID.

Sweden has thus outsourced perhaps the most critical part of our entire infrastructure to the private sector.

How lucky that there are backup solutions.

Many users were affected by the attack. Photo: Bankid

When the central bank of Ukraine visited the Swedish Riksbank last year and shared their experiences of trying to maintain a functioning payment system during a burning war, they highlighted one point in particular: cash is important.

Attention.

In Sweden, the use of banknotes and coins continues to fall, according to a report from the Riksbank.

In 2005, over 300 million cash withdrawals were made, last year only 50 million. The amount of cash in circulation in relation to GDP is (together with Norway) the lowest of all comparable countries, only about 1 percent compared to over 10 percent in the euro area.

The reason is spelled Swish. Or as the Riksbank writes: “Cash payments between private individuals have in many cases been replaced by the service”.

Swish is another bank-owned app with almost a hundred percent market share. The service has nine million users and 345,000 connected companies.

Conveniently enough for foreign powers, Swish is also dependent on Bank-ID.

Another weakness in Sweden is that it is not possible to pay with a card if the internet is down.

Turn off Bank-ID and Swish will also be turned off and if you also disrupt internet traffic, it will only be hours before the Swedish economy comes to a complete standstill.

A power outage like the one in Spain would have been harder to deal with in Sweden than in perhaps any other country.

Some readers might be thinking: haven't I read this before? Well, that's right.

Riksbank Governor Erik Thedeén. Photo: Lövkvist Malin

The absurditya of a system where private banks control everything to do with digital identification and payments has been debated for years. Very little has happened.

With an increasingly aggressive Russia, the situation has become acute. Or as the Riksbank puts it in official prose that reeks of understatement:

"Against the backdrop of the deteriorating security situation in Sweden and our immediate vicinity, both public and private actors urgently need to step up the work of creating a payments market that can withstand disruptions."

Blaming the banks is as pointless as scolding a microwave oven. The banks are like machines programmed to produce profit and nothing else.

The responsibility for Sweden making itself extremely vulnerable in such an important area as money rests with the politicians, who have done far too little to loosen the Swedish banking oligopoly. This complacency has developed into an acute security risk.

A slow awakening can be expected. In December, a report from the Ministry of Finance proposed that certain stores, as well as public institutions such as healthcare, must accept cash and that major banks are obliged to provide a functioning cash service throughout the country.

For an industry that generates around 200 billion in annual profits, the latter should be a manageable homework assignment.

So far, however, there are no legislative proposals on the table.

The police have also been tasked with developing a state-issued e-ID,

Good idea! If only it had come about ten years ago.

A faster way forward could be for the banks to kindly hand over ownership and control of Bank-ID to the state, in exchange for keeping their licenses.

That may seem very radical, almost crazy. In peacetime.

But now we are at war, according to those in the know.

100 firefighters on site – with 32-meter-high ladde

100 firefighters fight giant fire in central London

Wayne Seretis

Updated 10.29 | Published 09.12

A large fire is visible over large parts of London on Tuesday morning.

100 firefighters and 15 fire engines are fighting the fire.

– Keep doors and windows closed and avoid the area if possible, says fire chief Paul Morgan.

A power station is burning heavily near Paddington station in London, writes Metro.

The fire has also spread to a neighboring property and about 80 people have been evacuated from their homes.

The flames and a huge black cloud of smoke are visible over large parts of London.

Many Londoners filmed the fire on their way to work.

According to the London Fire Brigade, 15 fire engines and 100 firefighters have been sent to the scene to fight the blaze.

Photo: London Fire Brigade

32-meter high ladder

Firefighters are using a ladder truck with a 32-meter high ladder to fight the fire from above, according to local media.

“This is a very visible fire, which is creating a lot of smoke. Residents are asked to keep doors and windows closed and to avoid the area if possible,” said fire station chief Paul Morgan.

Firefighters are fighting the fire with foam, as water cannot be used due to the electricity.

The fire broke out at 05:30 local time on Tuesday morning.

There is no information on how the fire affects the electricity supply in the English capital, or its cause.

Economy

Economic unrest and friction with the US in focus in the election

The deterioration of the trade relationship with neighboring country the US has left its mark on the Canadian parliamentary election today. This is reported by CNN.

Among the issues that have dominated the top battle between the liberal central bank veteran Mark Carney and the conservative opponent Pierre Poilievre is how the country will handle the tariff war.

Chinese state planner: We can manage without the US

The Chinese state planning agency National Development and Reform Commission remains optimistic that it will meet the target of 5 percent growth this year. This despite the tariff war with the US.

The Commission's vice chairman, Zhao Chenxin, says at a press conference that the country can manage without agricultural and energy imports from the US.

– If we stop buying feed grains and oilseeds from the US, it will not have such a big impact on grain supplies, he says according to the Financial Times
 

The Swedish security situation
Risks when new energy sources in the system can be hacked

There are just over 290,000 solar cell plants connected to the electricity grid, where each individual part can be vulnerable to cyberattacks. This creates a security risk for the system, writes DN, which spoke to an expert.

An attack on an individual plant does less damage. But the risk is that some actor accumulates access to a large number of connected devices and starts tinkering with the system, says Kim Elman, Sweden manager at security company Northwave Cyber ​​Security, to the newspaper.

– It provides a huge attack surface that we did not have before.

H&M unique on the stock exchange: Managers' shares are not reported

In addition to CEO Daniel Ervér's holdings, clothing giant H&M does not report how many shares the managers in the management team own in the company. This is reported by DI, which states that this makes H&M unique among large companies on the Stockholm Stock Exchange.

Aktiespararna's chief legal officer Sverre Linton questions why the company deviates from the practice among listed companies. According to him, the fact that a company's senior representatives own shares has communicative value.

- A large shareholding is in itself a signal that one believes in the company, he tells the newspaper.

Trump's USA

The conflict with universities
After Trump's attacks - millions invested in lobbying

Several top universities in the US are investing in their lobbying in the wake of Donald Trump's attacks on them, reports the New York Times.

Ivy League schools in the US have found themselves in the president's firing line and in recent months several of them have been threatened with, and have had, government aid withdrawn.

Ten universities have now invested a total of $2.8 million in lobbying. That is more money than any of them has spent in a quarter since 2008. Harvard, which had millions in aid withdrawn and then sued the president, has increased its lobbying budget by nearly one million kronor, writes the NY Times.

Lobbyists usually hold meetings with members of Congress on behalf of the institutions to influence policy.

 

American aid
Reduced aid – thousands fired from UN agencies

The UN World Food Programme, WFP, is being forced to lay off between 25 and 30 percent of its staff due to reduced international funding. This is shown in an internal email that AFP has seen.

Since Donald Trump returned to the White House, he has announced reduced contributions from the US to various UN agencies. In light of this, 6,000 people are now being fired from the WFP.

"The structural change is necessary to be able to retain important resources in crucial operations," the email says.

The WFP is the world's largest humanitarian organization and works to prevent famine and hunger in vulnerable countries. They have 23,000 employees in 120 different countries.

 

The President's Team
Ex-advisor: Hegseth obsessed with hunting leaks

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is paranoid, obsessed with leaks and more interested in photo opportunities than leadership. Colin Carroll, a former top advisor on Hegseth's team, tells Politico.

- If you were to look at a pie chart of the secretary's workday, 50 percent is spent hunting leaks right now, he says in an interview with former Fox News commentator Megyn Kelly.

According to Carroll, Hegseth attaches great importance to the image conveyed by him. The defense secretary's regular video clips of him training with soldiers in the early mornings are said to be a response to accusations that he is undisciplined and drinks too much.

Carroll was one of three advisers who were fired this week after a bitter power struggle in the Pentagon.

New election in Canada

Polling stations open – record early voting

All polling stations have opened in Canada's election, which was called by Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney after he replaced Justin Trudeau.

A record number of Canadians have voted early – 7.3 million, compared to 5.8 million in the previous election in 2021, writes CTV.

Carney is facing main challenger Pierre Poilievre of the Conservative Party. The latest opinion polls have shown a slight lead for the Liberals since Carney took over from the unpopular Trudeau.

The election has largely come down to Donald Trump, his trade war and the repeated calls that the country should become a state in the United States. On the domestic front, the cost of living is one of the most important issues.

Polling stations are closing gradually during the late evening and night, Swedish time, and a preliminary result is expected overnight or Tuesday morning.

Media banned from Meta – misinformation spreads

Disinformation and fake news are a growing problem in Canada after traditional media outlets were blocked from Meta’s platforms. Something that could affect today’s election, reports the New York Times.

Meta blocked the media after a law change two years ago that means the company must pay taxes on all content from news outlets published on Meta’s social media.

The New York Times highlights an example of when a Facebook account smeared Mark Carney before he was elected Liberal Party leader and prime minister.

– Meta’s decision has made Canadians more vulnerable to generative AI, fake news sites and less likely to encounter ideas and facts that challenge their worldview, says expert Aengus Bridgman to the newspaper.
 

Trump to Canada: Vote right – become a state in the USA

On election day in Canada, Donald Trump once again reiterates the message that the country should become the 51st state of the USA.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump urges Canadians to vote for the man who is willing to join Canada to the USA, and lists a series of alleged benefits that would lead to. It is unclear who he is referring to, since no candidate in the election is pushing the issue.

“No more artificial borders from many years ago. Look how beautiful this landmass would be,” Trump continues.

Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, who is challenging the incumbent Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney, responds to Trump on X.

“President Trump, stay out of our election,” he writes, adding that Canada will never become part of the USA.

Latest news

Ship attacks
US loses fighter jet worth 600 million at sea

A US F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter jet, worth around 600 million kronor, slipped off the aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman and sank in the Red Sea on Monday. The US Navy said this according to the AP.

The plane was being towed by a vehicle on deck when it began to slide towards the edge. One person was in the plane and one in the tow vehicle, which also fell into the water, but they both managed to jump out. The pilot in the plane was slightly injured in the jump.

A defense source told CNN that the aircraft carrier had just made a sharp turn to avoid shelling from the Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Houthis themselves say they fired on the ship on Monday.

Political situation in Israel
Israeli spy chief resigns after row with Netanyahu

Ronen Bar, head of Israel's internal security service Shin Bet, is leaving his post. Reuters reports.

“To ensure an orderly process to appoint a permanent successor, and a professional handover, I will leave my post on June 15,” he wrote in a statement.

Bar and Shin Bet have been at the center of a protracted dispute between Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and large parts of Israel’s defense and security establishment. The core of the conflict is who bears responsibility for Israel’s lack of preparedness for the Hamas terror attack.

In March, Netanyahu said he had long lost confidence in Bar. He also tried to have him fired, but the Supreme Court blocked that after nationwide demonstrations.

Tariff crisis  Reactions to tariffs
China reiterates: No negotiations with the United States

China continues to deny the Trump administration’s statements that the countries are in talks about a new trade agreement. CNBC reports.

– Let me make it clear once again. China and the US are not holding any talks or negotiations on tariffs, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun at a press conference.

Last week, Guo also denied Trump's statement that Chinese President Xi Jinping had called the US president.

Power outage in the Iberian Peninsula
Fault in the connection to France behind the outage

The widespread power outage in the Iberian Peninsula was caused by a fault in the interconnected European electricity grid. This is stated by the Spanish national power grid company Red Eléctrica, according to La Vanguardia.

The fault occurred between France and Spain. According to Red Eléctrica's head Eduardo Prieto, it caused a severe imbalance in the electricity grid in the Iberian Peninsula, which led to its collapse.

Prieto adds that the outage is expected to be completely over within a few hours, but does not give an exact forecast.