A | STOCKHOLM -- The killing of two Swedish citizens in an attack ahead of a soccer match in Brussels has shocked the Scandinavian country, although the government has been warning for months that Swedes were at greater risk since a recent string of public desecrations of the Quran holy book by a handful of anti-Islam activists. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Tuesday noted that the government and the security service in August had raised the terror alert to the second-highest level following threats against Sweden by Islamic extremists. “Now we know with chilling clarity that there were grounds for those concerns,” he said. The desecrations, primarily by an Iraqi refugee living in Sweden, have sparked angry reactions in Muslim countries. In June, demonstrators in Iraq stormed the Swedish Embassy and the Iraqi government cut off diplomatic relations with Sweden. The desecrations have raised questions -– including in Sweden -– about why such acts are allowed.Swedish officials have repeatedly condemned the desecrations while saying they are allowed under freedom of speech. The government is investigating whether to give police greater authority to stop such acts on security grounds.“Not everything that is legal is appropriate," Kristersson said Tuesday. “What you do in Sweden can have consequences elsewhere.”In August, Sweden raised its terror alert to the second-highest level for the first time since 2016 following the Quran burnings and threats from militant groups.In a statement Tuesday, the Swedish Security Service, known as SÄPO, said the situation was ”serious” and that it was “working closely with the Belgian authorities.”Kristersson said he had been told by Belgium that the perpetrator "had stayed in Sweden but was not known to the Swedish police.”The European Union's passport-free zone allowed him to travel to Sweden. “We have an openness in Europe, which is one of the important reasons why we need to keep an eye on the EU’s external border, because otherwise people can easily move between European countries,” Kristersson said.In Sweden, there is no law specifically prohibiting the desecration of the Quran or other religious texts. The right to hold public demonstrations is protected by the Swedish Constitution. Police generally give permission based on whether they believe a public gathering can be held without major disruptions or risks to public safety.Many in Sweden say criticizing religion, even in a manner that is considered offensive by believers, must be allowed and that Sweden should resist pressure to re-introduce blasphemy laws which were abandoned decades ago in the predominantly Lutheran but highly secularized nation.Sweden, once largely insulated from militant violence, has experienced attacks in recent years.On April 7, 2017, Rakmat Akilov, an Uzbek man who said he wanted to punish Sweden for joining a coalition against the Islamic State group, drove a stolen truck into a crowd in Stockholm, killing five people and wounding 14 others. He was convicted of terror-related murder and given a life sentence.Another man, Taimour Abdulwahab, blew himself up in the same area in December 2010 when it was packed with Christmas shoppers, killing himself and injuring two people.A 2007 drawing of the Prophet Muhammad by a Swedish cartoonist, Lars Vilks, raised tensions. In May 2011, Vilks was assaulted while giving a speech in Uppsala, and vandals unsuccessfully tried to burn down his home in southern Sweden.。 PORTLAND, Ore. -- Federal regulators on Thursday approved the expansion of a natural gas pipeline in the Pacific Northwest over the protest of environmental groups and top officials in West Coast states, who said it goes against the region’s plans to address climate change and could pose a wildfire risk.The project, known as GTN Xpress, aims to expand the capacity of the Gas Transmission Northwest pipeline, which runs through Idaho, Washington and Oregon, by about 150 million cubic feet (4.2 million cubic meters) of natural gas per day. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave it the green light in a vote on Thursday.TC Energy plans to modify three compressor stations along the pipeline — in Kootenai County, Idaho; Walla Walla County, Washington; and Sherman County, Oregon. Compressor stations help maintain the pressure and flow of gas over long distances in a pipeline. Environmental groups criticized the decision of the commission, which "failed to listen to Senators, Governors, State Attorneys General, Tribes, and the public in its rubber stamp of unnecessary fracked gas in the Northwest,” said Audrey Leonard, staff attorney for Columbia Riverkeeper, an environmental nonprofit, in a statement.Leonard said potential spills and explosions on the pipeline, which was built in the 1960s, would not only harm the environment but also present a heightened wildfire risk in the arid regions it passes through.“An explosion of that level in eastern Washington or eastern Oregon would be catastrophic,” she said.Leonard said Columbia Riverkeeper will appeal the federal regulators’ decision and submit a petition for a rehearing. The pipeline belongs to TC Energy of Calgary, Canada — the same company behind the now-abandoned Keystone XL crude oil pipeline. The company said the project is necessary to meet consumer demand.Environmentalists and officials opposed to the project have expressed concern about TC Energy’s safety record. Its Columbia Gas Transmission pipeline exploded in Strasburg, Virginia, in July and its existing Keystone pipeline spilled nearly 600,000 gallons of bitumen oil in Kansas last December.The 1,377-mile (2,216-kilometer) pipeline runs from the Canadian border through a corner of Idaho and into Washington state and Oregon, connecting with a pipeline going into California.While Idaho’s Republican governor and congress members said that imposing other states’ climate policies would be “misguided,” Democratic officials in the other states called on federal officials to reject the plan. After the vote, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, condemned the decision.The project is “incompatible with our climate laws,” said a letter to the agency by Democratic U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell of Washington.“GTN Xpress represents a significant expansion of methane gas infrastructure at a time when California, Oregon, and Washington are moving away from fossil fuels,” the senators said.The attorneys general of the three states, citing the commission's draft environmental impact statement for the project, said it would result in more than 3.47 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year for at least the next three decades. The agency’s final environmental assessment revised that number downward by roughly half in calculations contested by environmental groups.The agency’s chairman, Willie Phillips, reiterated its stance after Thursday’s vote.“There was no evidence presented that this project would significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions,” he told reporters. “The commission determined that this project was needed and therefore we support its approval.”In its final environmental impact statement for the project issued last November, the federal agency said the compressor stations were in non-forested areas with low to moderate fire hazard. It concluded the project “would result in limited adverse impacts on the environment.”“Most adverse environmental impacts would be temporary or short-term,” the federal agency said. The agency recommended certain steps, such as requiring the company to train its personnel and contractors on environmental mitigation measures before any construction begins. But environmental groups say the assessment didn’t adequately address the harm caused by the project, including by fracking to obtain the natural gas that flows through the pipeline. Fracking is a technique used by the energy industry to extract oil and gas from rock by injecting high-pressure mixtures of water, sand or gravel and chemicals. It has been criticized by climate and environment groups for increasing emissions of methane, an extraordinarily potent greenhouse gas. ___Claire Rush is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.。
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