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Reactor Developers Advance Sweden's Nuclear Ambitions While State Puts Up $3.7 Billion
Sweden advanced its nuclear revival with two major filings for new capacity and a government proposal to commit up to $3.7 billion in state capital for SMR projects.
On May 18th, Blykalla submitted the first application for an advanced reactor park under Sweden’s new siting process. The Norrsundet site would host six 55-MWe SEALER lead-cooled reactors, for 330 MWe total.
CEO Jacob Stedman called it a historic first for Sweden, and linked the technology to meeting AI and electrification demand with reliable baseload power. Blykalla has a prototype facility underway at Oskarshamn with Uniper and partnerships with Oklo and ABB.
Studsvik filed in May for 600-1400 MWe of SMR capacity at its Nyköping site. This follows the Studsvik group’s earlier March application for Valdemarsvik. CEO Karl Thedéen highlighted the site’s decades of expertise and the intention to deliver real grid capacity in the 2030s as part of the company’s ReFirm program.
The government also recently proposed to acquire a 60% stake in Videberg Kraft AB, the Vattenfall-led project company for up to 1500 MWe at Ringhals. Vattenfall is the state-owned utility company.
The support package includes an initial SEK 1.8 billion ($193 million) injection and up to SEK 34.3 billion (~$3.7 billion) during construction, plus a share of SEK 122 billion (~$13 billion) baseline waste system costs. The structure aims to de-risk the first mover so later projects share fixed costs. Videberg is choosing between five GE Vernova Hitachi BWRX-300s or three Rolls-Royce SMRs, with selection later this year and investment decision in 2029.
Goldman provided some additional color on Swedish nuclear projects in their recent industry summary. We also touched on Studsvik’s acquisition of Kärnfull Next, which highlights the ongoing skilled engineering manpower bottleneck.
Timelines for first power remain in the early 2030s, with visible construction still months or years away. Sweden shows what policy certainty and state capital can achieve in spurring applications, but China’s pace of actual reactor builds remains the benchmark for delivery.
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Welsh Police Officers Ordered To Log Anti-Islam Comments In Chilling Free Speech Crackdown
Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,
Britain's free speech traditions face fresh erosion as South Wales Police directs officers to record conversations and comments about Islam that stray beyond what the force deems "legitimate" discussion.
The policy, exposed in recent social media posts, risks logging lawful criticism as hostility incidents that could surface in future employment checks.
This move builds directly on the Labour government's March definition of "anti-Muslim hostility" and exposes how public bodies are "gold-plating" safeguards meant to protect open debate.
Police force orders officers to keep record of Britons' anti-Islam comments
https://t.co/kQIa0v3VGz
South Wales Police has told staff to log anything exceeding its view of 'acceptable' talk on Islam. The Free Speech Union immediately challenged the guidance, warning it hands officers unchecked power to decide acceptable speech and creates a chilling effect on expression.
The FSU post laid it out plainly, noting "South Wales Police are zealously enforcing their own definition of Islamophobia in a way that threatens free speech."
? South Wales Police are zealously enforcing their own definition of Islamophobia in a way that threatens free speech.
The force has instructed staff to log anything that goes beyond what it considers a "legitimate" discussion of Islam.
This subjective definition gives... pic.twitter.com/cI6P188WOm
"This subjective definition gives officers the power to decide what constitutes acceptable speech and risks having a chilling effect on free expression," the FSU adds.
The FSU has written to South Wales Police calling on them to withdraw the guidance. "If they fail to do so, we have threatened legal action by way of judicial review," it further notes.
FSU General Secretary Lord Young said South Wales Police risked "penalising people for expressing misgivings about Islam", contrary to free speech protections enshrined in law. Britain's blasphemy laws were abolished by Parliament in 2008.
Lord Young added: "The Government was careful to include free speech safeguards in its official definition of anti-Muslim hostility, making clear that it was not intended to inhibit criticism of Islam or Islamic religious practices, such as ritual public prayer."
"Our concern is that police forces and other public bodies adopting the definition will gold-plate it, ignoring those safeguards and penalising people for expressing misgivings about Islam, even when those views are rooted in evidence rather than prejudice," Young further urged.
He continued, "In particular, we are concerned that the default police response to reports of anti-Muslim hostility - even where they clearly fall outside the definition - will be to record them as 'anti-social behaviour incidents', the new name for 'non-crime hate incidents'. Those records may then be disclosed in enhanced DBS checks."
The Government announced its official definition of "anti-Muslim hostility" in March, alongside plans to appoint an Islamophobia tsar.
South Wales Police's interpretation adds an extra phrase to the Government's definition that could have a chilling effect on free speech and potentially affect people's daily lives, such as their employment prospects.
As a result of this policy, individuals may be unable to predict whether their lawful speech or beliefs will be recorded by the police, or how any resulting record may be used, retained or relied upon.
We understand that several other police forces have adopted their own definitions of Islamophobia.
In March, ministers unveiled the non-statutory definition of anti-Muslim hostility in the "Protecting What Matters" report. The same package urged schools, councils and workplaces to monitor and report incidents, creating an atmosphere of institutional surveillance.
A leaked draft of the social cohesion strategy went further, branding the Union flag a "tool of hate" wielded by the "extreme right" to intimidate and exclude. National symbols of pride were reframed as potential weapons while the strategy allocated hundreds of millions toward "pressured areas."
The definition itself was shaped by a working group where every member carried links to Islamist organisations previously shunned by governments since 2009, including the Muslim Council of Britain and Muslim Engagement and Development. One member had publicly supported Hamas; another stood for the Respect Party.
Conservative MP Katie Lam warned the definition would "make it harder to talk about Islamist extremism, FGM, and the grooming gangs. They'd rather restrict our right to criticise than deal with these problems head-on. It's putting us all in danger."
The Free Speech Union briefing stated: "In a free society, no religion should enjoy greater protection than others - nor be shielded from legitimate criticism and challenge." It added that the group's makeup left "deep cause for concern."
While institutions chase "anti-Muslim hostility" records, actual religious discrimination in the opposite direction has flourished. Landlords across London and the south-east openly advertise flats and rooms "only for Muslims," "for two Muslim boys or two Muslim girls," or "Muslims preferred" on platforms including Gumtree and Facebook. These listings breach the Equality Act 2010 yet continue with minimal enforcement.
The contrast is stark: criticism of Islamic doctrine or practices triggers police logging and potential DBS disclosures, while explicit religious exclusion in areas such as housing draws little institutional pushback. This is two-tier Britain in action.
Lord Young's warning in the FSU statement remains the core issue. Officers are now empowered to decide what counts as "legitimate" discussion of Islam. Lawful misgivings rooted in evidence risk being recorded anyway. Blasphemy laws were abolished in 2008 for good reason; this approach revives their spirit for one religion alone.
Free speech protections exist precisely to cover expression that offends, shocks or disturbs. When police forces treat evidence-based concerns about Islamism as automatic hostility, they invert that principle and accelerate self-censorship across the country.
The Free Speech Union has made clear it will pursue judicial review if South Wales Police does not withdraw the guidance. Other forces reportedly adopting similar interpretations should take note. Britain's tradition of open debate on all ideas, including religious ones, is not optional. It is the foundation that keeps a free society from sliding into managed speech and selective enforcement.
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Opposite Of Drawdown: US Mulls Expanding Nuclear Weapons Deployments In Europe
The White House has been talking about reducing America's military presence across the European continent, amid long-running Trump complaints over lack of NATO burden-sharing. There are even plans to draw down 5,000 US troops from Germany on a permanent basis (though for now it appears thousands are just being moved to Poland).
Such a military 'reduction' would be welcomed by Moscow, however, as is usual when Washington signals de-escalation in force posture, the result ends up being the opposite. Washington is reportedly preparing to scatter more nuclear tripwires across the European continent, all while claiming a draw down of forces and footprint.
DoD file imageAccording to a Financial Times report published Tuesday, the US is actively discussing whether to deploy nuclear weapons in more NATO states.
Citing three people briefed on the internal discussions, American officials have signaled distinct openness to additional deployments well beyond the six nations that currently host the Pentagon's nuclear-capable bombers.
Under NATO’s legacy nuclear sharing program, only six allies including Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, and the United Kingdom - are approved to host US supplied dual-capable aircraft and "forward-deployed" nuclear bombs.
And yet that exclusive club may be about to get a lot larger, and even closer to Moscow's doorstep. Unsurprisingly, the nations highest on the list are located along NATO's eastern flank, with Poland and various Baltic states already aggressively expressing interest in hosting the bases required to house the aircraft.
But as even Ukrainian media points out, this violates prior high level agreements between the Western alliance and Moscow:
The 1997 NATO-Russia agreement said NATO had no plans to place nuclear weapons in new member states. However, some countries that joined NATO later, including Poland, have since said they would be open to hosting US nuclear weapons, especially after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The FT report suggests that while an agreement to expand nuclear hosting is not imminent, high-level discussions are happening at the highest levels of NATO.
The proposal seems to be Washington's carrot offered alongside the 'stick' of renewed financial arm-twisting over lack of European defense spending.
via London School of Economics and Political ScienceAs we featured last week, some recent reports have dubbed the new vision for European defense as "NATO 3.0" - wherein Washington would expect European allies to assume responsibility for the continent’s entire conventional defense, and the nuclear arsenal would be maintained by the United States. Lately France's Macron has introduced the possibility of a French nuclear umbrella, apparently as an alterantive.
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White Girls Raped By Dogs, Whisky Bottles, & 100s Of Men: Britain's Migrant Grooming-Gang Scandal Exposed
Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe used a Westminster Hall debate on Monday to confront MPs with harrowing testimony from White girls and women who were raped, tortured, trafficked, and degraded by migrant grooming gangs, and abandoned by the very authorities that should have protected them.
The debate was secured after 260,974 Brits signed a petition calling for Parliament to address the rape gang scandal. Lowe opened by thanking the signatories and welcoming survivors who were sitting in the hall, saying the debate was not about politics, but about them.
“I want the world to hear what we heard during the two weeks of our independent rape gang inquiry hearings, an inquiry that should never have needed to happen,” Lowe said.
He then read out a series of graphic testimonies that exposed the scale of the abuse suffered by almost exclusively White girls.
One survivor said she was only “about 12, nearly 13” when a man raped her before forcing an empty Jack Daniel’s bottle inside her and breaking the glass. Another described being held down by groups of men as they took turns to rape her, before beating her and threatening to kill her and harm her loved ones if she ever spoke out.
I want the world to hear what we heard. pic.twitter.com/2DtCS0QztE
— Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) June 1, 2026Lowe told MPs that the evidence heard by his inquiry included repeated allegations that White British girls were deliberately targeted.
One survivor said abusers made constant references to “White girls” and “Christian girls,” claiming they had “fewer morals or lower values,” while Muslim girls were described as having “dignity and higher moral standing.”
Another alleged victim said race “did play a part” in the selection of victims, adding that the girls she encountered during her exploitation were “almost exclusively White.”
The testimony also included claims that children in care were effectively handed over to abusers. One survivor said men would sound a car horn outside a children’s home before a staff member brought a child to the front door. Another said, “It was all of the White girls in every home that I went to.”
In one of the most disturbing accounts read to MPs, a survivor recalled seeing the back of a van opened to reveal “15, 20 girls locked in dog cages.” Another said dogs were brought in during an attack while men stood around filming, laughing, and betting on what would happen. She said she had nowhere to move and was raped by a dog while a man held her face and stared into her eyes because “he wanted to see me break.”
Lowe also read testimony from a survivor who said she was raped by “probably about six or seven hundred different men” over three years after the abuse began when she was 13. Another said abuse escalated around Eid and holidays, when parties became “bigger, worse, and “more violent,” with more men and more girls involved.
The Restore Britain leader claimed that institutions had repeatedly failed victims. One girl said she went to hospital at 15, bleeding, swollen, and unable to sit down after an assault, but was given tablets and discharged after telling staff her drink had been spiked because she was too frightened to say what had really happened. “They did not ask any questions,” she said.
Another survivor alleged that she was raped by multiple police officers in different parts of the country. A further testimony claimed a man put a cigarette out on a baby’s face.
Lowe said the abuse was also used to attack the faith and identity of victims. One Christian survivor said her cross was used as a way to break her down, with abusers asking, “Where is your God now? Has your God forsaken you?”
The politician said he could have continued reading testimony “for hours and hours,” warning that Parliament no longer had any excuse for inaction.
“All of us in this building have a responsibility to finally act. Not to talk, but to act,” he said. “Our Rape Gang Inquiry report will be released in the coming days. It will change Britain for good.”
Lowe launched his own independent inquiry before the U.K. government announced a statutory national investigation into grooming gangs, a probe that identified evidence of child sexual exploitation across dozens of local authority areas.
Tyler Durden Wed, 06/03/2026 - 03:30