Tag: sweden

A Eurovision like no other: Israel’s war on Gaza takes centre stage | Israel War on Gaza News

Stockholm, Sweden – Malmo is rarely the centre of attention, but this week, the spotlight is on as the Eurovision Song Contest dominates Sweden’s third-largest city.

More than 150 million people tune into the annual competition that organisers say is apolitical.

This year’s event is likely to be far from it, however.

Israel is set to participate amid protests and calls for a boycott given its war on Gaza that has to date killed more than 34,500 Palestinians.

“Falastinvision”, for instance, is billed as an alternative “genocide-free” song contest. Stop the war, Women’s song for Gaza and Long live Palestine are among the more than 30 entries that can be voted for online, with a winner to be announced on May 11 – the same day as the Eurovision finale.

In the run-up to Eurovision, more than 1,000 Swedish artists demanded a ban on Israel but their calls were rejected. Israel is participating with Hurricane – the song had previously been titled October Rain, an apparent reference to Hamas’s October 7 attacks, which organisers deemed too political.

The group that governs Gaza launched an unprecedented incursion into southern Gaza seven months ago, during which 1,139 people were killed. Hundreds were also taken captive during the assault, which sharply escalated the historic Israel-Palestine conflict.

But as well as the expected pro-Palestine events in Sweden, which activists hope tens of thousands will attend, there are a series of planned Quran burnings, giving the Malmo municipality a complex mix of issues to contend with.

Since demonstrations and counter-demonstrations heighten the security threat, Swedish police will be joined by Danish and Norwegian officers for the week.

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Flag of NATO’s 32nd member, Sweden, raised at alliance’s headquarters | News

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson preside over flag-raising ceremony in Brussels.

Sweden’s flag has been raised at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, marking the country’s entry into the military alliance two years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg looked on as two soldiers on Monday raised the blue banner emblazoned with a yellow cross among the official circle of national flags at the transatlantic grouping’s offices in the Belgian capital.

Ahead of the flag-hoisting ceremony held in the rain, Kristersson said expectations were “high”.

“We have chosen you, and you have chosen us. All for one, and one for all,” the prime minister said, adding that his country was a “proud” member and pledging that it would uphold the values enshrined in NATO’s founding Washington Treaty.

“The security situation in our region has not been this serious since the Second World War, and Russia will stay a threat to Euro-Atlantic security for a foreseeable future,” Kristersson said.

For his part, Stoltenberg said Sweden becoming the alliance’s 32nd member shows Russian President Vladimir Putin “failed” in his Ukrainian war strategy of weakening it.

“When President Putin launched his full-scale invasion two years ago, he wanted less NATO and more control over his neighbours. He wanted to destroy Ukraine as a sovereign state, but he failed,” Stoltenberg said, adding that Ukraine is “closer to NATO than ever before”.

The ceremony came as 20,000 troops from 13 countries began NATO drills in the high north of Sweden as well as its neighbours Finland and Norway.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 prompted Sweden and Finland, which shares a 1,340km (832-mile) border with Russia, to end years of military nonalignment and apply to join the United States-led alliance.

While Finland joined in April 2023, Sweden’s adhesion to NATO took close to two years as Turkey and Hungary held up the process that requires the unanimous support of all members.

The Turkish parliament gave its formal consent in January and Hungary’s came last week.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday labelled the accession a “historic moment for Sweden, for our alliance and for the transatlantic relationship”.

“Good things come to those who wait,” Blinken said as he received Sweden’s accession documents in Washington, DC.

The members of NATO have lent their military and financial support to Ukraine in its fightback against Russian forces, but momentum is slowing as US political will fractures and Europe struggles to meet the Ukrainian ammunition needs.

Sweden brings to the table well-trained and equipped armed forces. It also adds cutting-edge submarines and a sizeable fleet of domestically produced Gripen fighter jets to NATO forces and would be a crucial link between the Atlantic and Baltic.

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Sweden resumes aid to UN agency for Palestinians | Israel War on Gaza News

First payment of $20m to be disbursed after Sweden gets assurances of the UNRWA’s checks on spending and personnel.

Sweden has said it is resuming aid to the cash-strapped United Nations agency for Palestinians with an initial disbursement of $20m after receiving assurances of extra checks on its spending and personnel.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the main humanitarian agency in Gaza, faced an unprecedented funding crisis after its major international donors led by the United States cut its funding over “terror” allegations.

Like several other countries, Sweden suspended aid to the UNRWA after Israel accused about a dozen of its employees of involvement in the October 7 Hamas-led attack before the conflict in Gaza.

Sweden said on Saturday that “the government has allocated 400 million kronor to UNRWA for the year 2024. Today’s decision concerns a first payment of 200 million kronor ($19.4)”.

To unblock the aid, the UNRWA had agreed to “allow controls, independent audits, to strengthen internal supervision and extra controls of personnel”, the government said.

The Swedish move came after the European Commission earlier this month said it would release 50 million euros ($54.7m) in UNRWA funding.

On Friday, Canada announced it was lifting a freeze on funding for the UNRWA, after it joined the US, the United Kingdom and other countries in cutting aid in late January.

The UNRWA has been at the centre of efforts to providing humanitarian relief in Gaza, where the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported last month that at least half a million – or one in four people – face famine.

Israel has severely restricted the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza by land, prompting the US and other countries to resort to stopgap measures such as airdropping meals into the enclave.

Such steps by the US, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt have been criticised by aid agencies as a costly and ineffective way of delivering food and medical supplies.

The UNRWA has said that Israeli authorities have not allowed it to deliver supplies to the north of the Strip since January 23.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reported that in northern Gaza “we are seeing children dying in this enforced starvation and dehydration due to the famine spreading”.

He said on Saturday that three more children died at al-Shifa Hospital, as a result of starvation and dehydration, increasing the number of such deaths to 23.

At least 30,960 Palestinians have been killed and 72,524 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from Hamas’s October 7 attacks stands at 1,139, and dozens continue to be held captive.

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Sweden officially joins NATO alliance, ending decades of neutrality | NATO News

The Nordic nation applied to join the military alliance in May 2022, but faced delays from Turkey and Hungary.

Sweden has officially joined the NATO military alliance, ending decades of neutrality amid soaring concerns about Russia’s aggression in Europe following its invasion of Ukraine.

“Unity and solidarity will be Sweden’s guiding lights as a NATO member,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said in a statement delivered in Washington, DC after a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“We will share burdens, responsibilities and risks with our allies,” he said.

“Good things come to those who wait,” Blinken said as he received Sweden’s accession documents.

“This is a historic moment for Sweden, for our alliance and for the transatlantic relationship,” Blinken said.

At a press conference in Stockholm on Thursday, Sweden’s Minister for Employment and Integration Johan Pehrson labelled the accession “a new security policy era for Sweden”, adding that he had personally been waiting for such a decision for 20 years.

Fears of Russian military threat

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, sparked Sweden and its neighbour Finland – which shares a 1,340km (832-mile) border with Russia – to apply to join NATO.

“We have to face the world as it is not how we sometimes wish it were,” Kristersson said after Hungary became the last NATO member to ratify Sweden’s accession last week.

Sweden’s lack of military preparedness was revealed in 2013 when Russian bomber planes flew across the Gulf of Finland close to the Swedish island of Gotland in what was believed to be simulated nuclear attacks. Stockholm needed the support of NATO jets to ward the Russian planes away from its airspace.

The next year there were reports that a Russian submarine was operating in the Stockholm archipelago.

Seamstress Tove Lycke works on NATO flags, at the flag manufacturer Flagghuset, in Akersberga, outside Stockholm, Sweden, March 7, 2024 [TT News Agency/Anders Wiklund via Reuters]

Sweden’s shift away from a neutral stance

While Stockholm has been drawing ever closer to NATO over the last two decades, membership marks a clear break with the past, when for more than 200 years, Sweden avoided military alliances and adopted a neutral stance in times of war.

After World War II, it built an international reputation as a champion of human rights, and when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, successive governments pared back military spending.

As recently as 2021, its defence minister had rejected NATO membership, only for the then-Social Democrat government to apply, alongside neighbour Finland, just a few months later.

While Finland joined last year, Sweden was kept waiting as Turkey and Hungary delayed ratifying Sweden’s accession.

Turkey approved Sweden’s application in January.

Hungary delayed its move until Kristersson made a visit to Budapest on February 23, during which the two countries agreed on a fighter-jet deal.

Sweden adds cutting-edge submarines and a sizeable fleet of domestically produced Gripen fighter jets to NATO forces and would be a crucial link between the Atlantic and Baltic.

Russia has threatened to take unspecified “political and military-technical counter-measures” in response to Sweden’s move.

A Swedish Air Force Saab JAS 39 Gripen fighter jet, July 4, 2023 [File: Piroschka van de Wouw/Reuters]



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Hungary, Sweden sign fighter jet deal before NATO membership vote | NATO News

Hungary, the last NATO country to approve Sweden’s membership bid, will hold a parliamentary vote on Monday.

Hungary has signed a deal to buy four fighter jets from Sweden, as Budapest finally prepares to approve Stockholm’s bid to join NATO after nearly two years of delays.

“We not only keep our air defence capability but will increase it,” Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a news conference alongside Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Friday of the agreement to buy four Saab JAS Gripen fighter jets.

This “means our commitment to NATO will strengthen and so will our participation in NATO’s joint operations,” Orban added. Hungary will also expand a related logistics contract. It currently leases Gripen aircraft under a contract signed in 2001.

Kristersson welcomed the deal and said that “the conversation has been constructive, and we have agreed to move forward in fields of common interests”.

“We do not agree on everything, but we do agree that we should work more actively together when we have common ground,” he added.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in Budapest, Hungary, February 23, 2024 [Bernadett Szabo/Reuters]

Hungary, the final country to approve Sweden’s bid to join the transatlantic military alliance, will hold a vote in parliament on Monday after Turkey’s ratification last month.

The delay in ratifying Sweden’s NATO application soured Budapest’s relations with the United States and raised concerns among its allies.

Sweden sought to join the military alliance in 2022 along with Finland following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Finland became the 31st member of the alliance last April, which doubled the length of NATO’s border with Russia. It also strengthened the defences of three small Baltic countries that joined the bloc after the collapse of the Soviet Union more than three decades ago.

Earlier Friday, Orban told state radio that “some pending [bilateral] military and arms issues” had to be resolved before the vote.

“We are pro-peace, and the Swedes are pro-war in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict,” Orban said. adding the “clear differences in values” could be bridged.

Sweden, which has a long coastline on the Baltic Sea, could become a vital logistics hub for NATO in Northern Europe if it manages to join the bloc.

Military non-alignment had once been a point of pride for Swedes, with a clear majority against NATO membership, which changed once the Ukraine war started.

Sweden has already regularly participated in NATO exercises in the region.

Orban, who had maintained close economic ties with Russia, had repeatedly delayed Sweden’s ratification citing grievances over Stockholm’s criticism of the rule of law and the state of democracy in Hungary.

The Hungarian leader, who has also refused to send weapons to Ukraine and slammed Western sanctions against Russia, urged for a ceasefire earlier on Friday.

He said a truce was the only solution as “Russia cannot be forced on its knees in the military sense … This conflict [in Ukraine] has no solution on the battleground”.

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Hungary could ratify Sweden’s NATO membership in February: PM Orban | NATO News

Budapest is the only NATO member yet to ratify Stockholm’s membership to the world’s largest military alliance.

The Hungarian parliament can ratify Sweden’s NATO membership when it convenes for its new session later this month, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has told his supporters.

“It’s good news that our dispute with Sweden will soon be settled,” Orban said in his state-of-the-nation address on Saturday in Budapest.

“We are going in the direction that at the start of parliament’s spring session we can ratify Sweden’s accession to NATO.”

Orban highlighted that he and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson had taken steps “to rebuild trust” between the two countries. But he did not say what those steps were.

Sweden applied to join NATO in May 2022 in a historic shift in policy prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Hungary is the only NATO country not yet to have ratified Sweden’s application, a process that requires the backing of all NATO members.

Turkey was the only other NATO holdout, but the Turkish parliament voted to approve Swedish membership last month.

Earlier this month, lawmakers from Hungary’s governing Fidesz party boycotted an emergency parliament session in which a vote on Sweden’s bid to join NATO was on the agenda.

Fidesz cited what it called unfounded Swedish allegations that it has eroded democracy in Hungary as the reason why Sweden’s NATO bid had been held up.

Hungarian officials have also indicated that Fidesz lawmakers won’t support holding a vote on Sweden’s NATO bid until Kristersson accepts an invitation by Orban to visit Budapest to negotiate the matter.

On Wednesday, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said his country hoped that Hungary would soon ratify its accession to NATO, removing the last obstacle to its membership.

Billstrom reiterated there would be no negotiations on the ratification despite Orban inviting Kristersson to “negotiate” Sweden’s accession.

“There is nothing to negotiate, if there is a visit, it’s not going to be a negotiation, that has been made very clear by my prime minister,” the Swedish foreign minister said earlier this week.

The delay in ratifying Sweden’s NATO application has also soured Budapest’s relations with the United States and raised concerns among its allies.

US Senator Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat and chairperson of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also raised the prospect of imposing sanctions on Hungary for its conduct and called Orban “the least reliable member of NATO”.

Orban, who has better ties with Russia than other EU states and most NATO members, has repeatedly said his government backs Sweden joining the alliance, but the legislation has been stranded in the Hungarian parliament since mid-2022.

The Hungarian Parliament is scheduled to reconvene on February 26.

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Swedish PM Kristersson agrees to meet Hungary’s Orban for talks on NATO bid | NATO News

After ratification by Turkey, Hungary is the only country left effectively holding up Sweden’s NATO membership.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has agreed to meet his counterpart from Hungary, the only NATO member yet to ratify his country’s membership in the military alliance.

Swedish public television on Thursday published a letter Kristersson penned to Prime Minister Viktor Orban in which he said he accepted an invitation received this week to meet in Budapest “at a time convenient for both of us”.

“The completion of the ratification process of Sweden’s NATO membership in the Hungarian parliament will create a solid foundation to move ahead in our bilateral relationship, and to reinforce mutual understanding and trust,” Kristersson said in the letter.

He added that “a more intensive dialogue between our countries would be beneficial”, noting they would also have the opportunity to speak in Brussels on February 1 at a meeting of the European Council.

The publication of the letter comes a day after Turkey’s parliament approved Sweden’s NATO membership. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to add his signature in the coming days.

Kristersson said after the vote in Ankara that Sweden was “one step closer” to joining the alliance.

In a post on X on the same day, Orban wrote that his country supports Sweden’s membership and said he would urge lawmakers to approve its accession quickly.

But on Thursday, Hungary’s parliamentary speaker, Laszlo Kover, said there was no urgency in backing Sweden’s NATO membership bid.

“I do not feel any particular urgency. Moreover, I do not think there is an extraordinary situation,” Kover said.

Finland became the 31st member of the alliance in April, which doubled the length of NATO’s border with Russia. It also  strengthened the defences of three small Baltic countries that joined the bloc after the collapse of the Soviet Union more than three decades ago.

Sweden and Finland both had a lengthy history of military non-alignment harkening back to the Cold War. However, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine rocked ties on the continent and changed their policy.

Both Orban and Erdogan maintain relatively friendly relations with Russia.



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Turkey’s parliament set to vote on Sweden’s NATO bid this week: Reports | News

Turkey endorsed Finland’s membership bid in April but, along with Hungary, has kept Sweden waiting.

The Turkish parliament is set to debate Sweden’s NATO membership bid after months of delays that have strained Ankara’s ties with its Western allies, with a vote expected this week.

The debate in the Grand National Assembly is due to take place on Tuesday, state media reported, with a vote likely the same day. The AFP news agency reported that the vote could be held on Thursday.

Turkey’s ratification would leave Hungary as the last holdout in an accession process that Sweden and its neighbour Finland began in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago.

However, on Tuesday, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he had invited his Swedish counterpart, Ulf Kristersson, for a visit to negotiate his country joining the military alliance.

Finland became the 31st member of the alliance last April. Its membership roughly doubled the length of NATO’s border with Russia and substantially strengthened the defences of three small Baltic nations that joined the bloc following the Soviet Union’s collapse.

Sweden and Finland pursued a policy of military non-alignment during the Cold War era confrontation between Russia and the United States.

However, Russia’s invasion of its western neighbour set off Europe’s biggest and most brutal land battle since World War II, upturning geopolitical calculations.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s resistance to Sweden’s NATO accession reflected his more nuanced stance towards Moscow.

Ankara has profited from maintaining – and even expanding – trade with Russia while at the same time supplying Ukraine with drones and other essential arms.

Erdogan has also been one of the few NATO leaders to hold regular meetings and phone conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Turkish media reported that Putin could make his first wartime visit to Turkey next month.

US fighter jets

Erdogan’s objections to Sweden’s bid initially focused on Stockholm’s perceived acceptance of Kurdish groups that Ankara views as “terrorists”.

Sweden has responded by tightening its antiterrorism legislation and taking other security steps demanded by Erdogan over the members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which the European Union and the United States also list as a “terrorist” group.

Sweden and NATO members Finland, Canada and the Netherlands also took steps to relax Turkey’s arms export policies.

The Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee approved the Swedish bid last month after Erdogan forwarded it to parliament in October.

However, Erdogan has since demanded that Washington follow through on its pledge to deliver a batch of F-16 fighter jets for Turkey’s ageing air force.

Erdogan last month discussed his demands by telephone with US President Joe Biden.

US officials argued that Turkey’s request could win the required congressional approval if Sweden’s NATO accession goes through – a position reaffirmed by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a visit to Istanbul this month.

“We have not parsed words about how ready we are for Sweden to formally join the alliance,” said US Department of State deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel after news emerged that Turkey was finally ready to ratify the Swedish candidacy.

“We have long felt that [Sweden] has met its commitment and we look forward to this process moving forward.”



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Fashion giant H&M pulls ad after claims it sexualised under-age girls | Fashion Industry

Swedish brand apologises after ad campaign in Australia sparks backlash online.

H&M, the Swedish fashion giant, has pulled an advertisement for school clothing after complaints it sexualised underage girls.

The advertising campaign launched in Australia featured two young girls in school uniform with the caption, “Make those heads turn in H&M’s Back to School fashion”.

“We have removed this ad,” an H&M spokesperson said on Monday. “We are deeply sorry for the offence this has caused and we are looking into how we present campaigns going forward.”

The move comes after social media users accused the clothing brand of sexualising young girls.

“The little girls’ parents generally prefer heads don’t ‘turn’ when others see their daughters walking to school, on a bus or in class,” Melinda Tankard Reist, an Australian writer known for campaigning against pornography, said in a post on X.

“Why would you want to fuel the idea that little girls should draw attention to their looks, bodies and ‘style’? Perhaps have a word to your marketing team and come up with something that doesn’t draw attention to pre-pubescent girls already struggling to thrive in a culture that values ‘lookism’ as an aspirational goal?”

The backlash is the latest in a series of controversies involving fashion brands’ advertising campaigns.

Last month, Zara dropped a campaign featuring a model standing among rubble and mannequins wrapped in shrouds after social media users claimed it was insensitive to victims of the war in Gaza.

Paris-based luxury fashion brand Balenciaga last year apologised for running adverts that featured children holding teddy bears wearing bondage-style attire and a printout of a Supreme Court decision that upheld laws against child pornography.

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Countries file UN complaint over Boeing 737-800 shot down by Iran in 2020 | Aviation News

The Ukraine International Airlines plane was hit by two missiles Iran says were fired in error shortly after takeoff, killing 176 people.

Canada, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Ukraine have filed a complaint with the United Nations civil aviation agency against Iran for shooting down a passenger plane in 2020, killing 176 people.

The four countries, which all had citizens on board the Ukraine International Airlines flight, accused Tehran of “using weapons against a civil aircraft in flight in breach of its international legal obligations”.

The Boeing 737-800 was shot down shortly after takeoff from Tehran on January 8, 2020, amid rising tensions with the United States following the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.

Three days later, Iran admitted that its Revolutionary Guard had fired two missiles at the plane, which was heading to Kyiv, by mistake.

The four countries said they opened “dispute settlement proceedings” with the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Montreal.

The move was “an important step in our commitment to ensuring that the families of the victims impacted by this tragedy get the justice they deserve”, said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who attended a memorial service in Ontario to mark the fourth anniversary of the disaster.

The countries have already filed a case with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, seeking reparations from Iran for the families of the victims.

They said Iran had “failed to conduct an impartial, transparent and fair criminal investigation and prosecution consistent with international law”.

In April last year, an Iranian court issued initial sentences for 10 unnamed people accused of involvement in the incident, including the operator of an air defence system.

Iran has also set compensation of $150,000 for each of the families of the victims and said in 2022 it had begun making the payments.

Tehran has rejected claims that it is not cooperating or being transparent and has accused the four governments of trying to “politicise” the issue.

It has filed its own case with the ICJ, accusing Canada of violating its “international obligations” by allowing people to seek civil damages against Tehran.

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