Sweden has officially become the 32nd member of the US-led NATO military bloc after the document formalizing Stockholm’s accession entered into force on Thursday.
The accession ceremony will be held in Washington, where Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson will submit his country’s documents to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. A document published by the US Department of State asserts that all conditions for Sweden’s entry into NATO have been fulfilled and that the protocol signifying Stockholm’s membership entered into force on March 7, 2024. In a post on X, Kristersson also declared that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg had informed him that all bloc members have formally accepted Sweden’s accession protocol and had invited Stockholm to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Stockholm is set to make a final formal decision on joining the bloc, which will be followed by a news conference. After that, Kristersson is set to issue an address to the nation, according to Swedish Radio. Sweden and Finland abandoned their longstanding policies of non-alignment and submitted bids to join the US-led military bloc in 2022, citing security concerns following the launch of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine. The two countries' bids to join had to be ratified by all current bloc members. Hungary and Türkiye initially objected, with Ankara accusing Sweden and Finland of harboring members of armed groups designated as terrorists under Turkish law. Finland and Sweden eventually reformed their anti-terrorism laws and both bids were ultimately ratified. Finland became the 31st member of NATO in April 2023. Meanwhile, Russia has insisted that NATO’s continued expansion poses a threat to its national security and is destabilizing Europe, making it less safe. Moscow has pointed out that it did not have any issues with the two Scandinavian countries before they decided to join the US-led bloc, but will now be forced to respond by reorganizing and strengthening its armed forces in the region.
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The Hungarian government is in favor of Sweden joining NATO and will soon schedule a ratification vote in the parliament, Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced on Wednesday.
The move will allow Stockholm to become a member of the US-led military bloc after almost two years of delays. Sweden applied to join NATO in May 2022, citing the Russia-Ukraine conflict, but ran into opposition from Türkiye and Hungary due to ongoing disputes with the two states. The bloc’s rules require unanimous consent before it can accept new member states. “Just finished a phone call with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg,” Orban said on X (formerly Twitter). “I reaffirmed that the Hungarian government supports the NATO membership of Sweden. I also stressed that we will continue to urge the Hungarian National Assembly to vote in favor of Sweden’s accession and conclude the ratification at the first possible opportunity.” Budapest has accused Stockholm of telling “blatant lies” about Hungarian democracy as part of an ongoing dispute within the EU. As of Wednesday, the Hungarian parliament has not put up the ratification vote on its docket. Turkish lawmakers voted to approve Sweden’s membership on Tuesday, sending the ratification bill to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s desk. Ankara had serious differences with Stockholm over human rights, terrorism, and arms trade, which interfered with NATO plans to have Sweden and Finland join the bloc together. Both Scandinavian countries abandoned their longstanding policy of non-alignment after Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine, citing it as a threat to their security. When Finland officially joined the bloc in April 2023, NATO doubled the length of its border with Russia. Moscow stated that it had no issue with either country until then, but would have to react if they join NATO. Russia has insisted that the bloc’s expansion eastward, which began in 1999, is a threat to Russian national security and one of the root causes of the Ukraine conflict. Orban has repeatedly called for peace in Ukraine and said he would block any attempts by Kiev to join NATO or the EU, as that would mean “bringing the war” into both blocs. Scientists have hailed a potentially ‘revolutionary’ breakthrough in the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, after a team of Swedish researchers found that a commercially available blood test can detect biological markers of the disease about ten to 15 years before symptoms develop.
In a study of 768 people in their fifties, sixties, and seventies over an eight-year period conducted by the University of Gothenburg, it was found that the test – which detects the presence of tau proteins in blood – was 97% accurate in assessing if a subject was liable to develop the disease. The results of the study, published in the JAMA Neurology journal on Monday, have been hailed as a breakthrough in early screening tests for the disease well in advance of the onset of symptoms. Alzheimer’s, which causes the brain to shrink and its cells to eventually die, is the most common form of dementia, and is characterized by a decline in cognitive function, as well as behavior and social skills. The research “adds to a growing body of evidence that this particular test has huge potential to revolutionize diagnosis for people with suspected Alzheimer’s,” Sheona Scales, the director of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said, according to The Times on Monday. She added that the testing is “superior to a range of other tests currently under development,” and preferable to more invasive methods currently used by medical practitioners, such as lumbar punctures. David Curtis of the UCL Genetics Institute said that the findings of the Swedish team of scientists “could potentially have huge implications.” “Everybody over 50 could be routinely screened every few years, in much the same way as they are now screened for high cholesterol,” he added. “It is possible that currently available treatments for Alzheimer’s disease would work better in those diagnosed early this way.” The developer of the blood test, Californian company ALZpath, has said that it hopes to make the test widely available for clinical use in the first quarter of this year. About 1 in 9 people (10.7%) aged 65 or over has the disease, according to data from the Alzheimer’s Association. This is expected to rise substantially in the next 25 years, the group says on its website, “barring the development of medical breakthroughs to prevent or cure Alzheimer’s disease.” The country’s accession will now need to be approved in a parliamentary vote. Fuat Oktay, the head of the foreign affairs commission, has told reporters that the parliament’s speaker would only decide on timing. Following the committee's approval, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said Sweden welcomed the decision in a statement on X (formerly known as Twitter), writing that he was “looking forward to joining NATO.” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also welcomed the move, and called on Türkiye and Hungary to “complete their ratifications as soon as possible. Sweden’s membership will make NATO stronger.”
NATO requires that all of its members must agree unanimously on expansion, and Türkiye and Hungary are the only countries that have been standing in Stockholm's way. Hungary claims that Swedish politicians have told “blatant lies” about the condition of Hungary’s democracy. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said last week that there was “no great willingness” to approve Sweden’s bid; however, Türkiye has been seen as the main NATO member preventing the Nordic country’s inclusion in the military alliance. In May 2022, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan objected to both Swedish and Finnish requests to join the military bloc, complaining that the Nordic nations were embracing terrorists. Türkiye later ratified Finland's bid in April, but kept Sweden waiting, demanding more security concessions. Ankara said the Nordic country needed to take more steps to crack down on Kurdish militants. Stockholm penned a new anti-terrorism bill in response and said that it had upheld its part of a deal signed last year. Sweden and NATO members Finland, Canada and the Netherlands also took steps to lift arms embargoes imposed on Türkiye. Earlier this month, Erdogan openly linked the ratification of Sweden’s membership to the US Congress’ approval of a Turkish request to purchase 40 F-16 fighter jets. The White House has backed the Turkish request but there has been opposition in Congress to military sales to Türkiye. Türkiye’s heel-dragging has baffled some of the country’s fellow NATO members, who were swift to accept Sweden and Finland into the bloc. Unlike its allies, Ankara seeks to maintain a neutral position towards the conflict in Ukraine, calling on the parties to end the hostilities, but also criticizing Western sanctions on Russia. In September Erdogan told PBS, a US broadcaster, that in his opinion, Russia and the West are “equally” reliable and trustworthy. Hungarian-born Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman of the US have won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their research that led directly to the first mRNA vaccines to fight COVID-19, made by Pfizer and Moderna, according to the awarding body.
“The laureates contributed to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times,” the jury said in Sweden’s capital Stockholm on Monday. Katalin Kariko is a professor at Sagan’s University in Hungary and an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Drew Weissman conducted his prizewinning research together with Kariko at the University of Pennsylvania. The pair will receive their prize, consisting of a diploma, a gold medal and a $1m cheque, from King Carl XVI Gustaf at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of scientist Alfred Nobel who created the prizes in his last will and testament. The frontrunners for this year’s award in medicine included Kevan Shokat, an American biologist who figured out how to block the KRAS cancer gene behind a third of cancers, including challenging-to-treat lung, colon,\ and pancreatic tumours. Two American biologists, Stanislas Leibler and Michael Elowitz, were also in the run for their work on synthetic gene circuits which established the field of synthetic biology. It enables scientists to redesign organisms by engineering them to have new abilities. The Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine was won last year by Swedish scientist Svante Paabo for discoveries in human evolution that unlocked secrets of Neanderthal DNA which provided key insights into our immune system, including our vulnerability to severe COVID-19. The physics prize will be announced on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday and the economics award on October 9. Investigative journalists have been carrying out their own research to solve the Nord Stream whodunnit, leading to sometimes sensational, if unconfirmed, reports.
Dutch military intelligence warned the CIA of a Ukrainian plan to blow up the pipelines three months before the attack, Dutch broadcaster NOS and Germany’s Die Zeit and ARD reported in June. The Washington Post made a similar claim. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly denied his country was behind the sabotage. “I would never do that,” he told Germany’s Bild newspaper, adding he would “like to see proof”. In March, The New York Times wrote that US officials had seen intelligence indicating a “pro-Ukrainian group” was responsible, without Zelenskyy’s knowledge. German media have focused on the Andromeda, with reporters from Der Spiegel magazine and broadcaster ZDF recreating the journey they believe was made by the six-person crew. According to their reporting, a forged passport used to hire the sailboat leads back to a Ukrainian soldier, while the charter fee was paid by a company registered in Poland with ties to a woman in Kyiv. In June, The Wall Street Journal reported Germany was trying to match DNA samples found on the vessel “to at least one Ukrainian soldier”. The Journal also said evidence found in the investigation included data from Andromeda’s radio and navigation equipment, satellite and mobile phones, and Gmail accounts allegedly used by the perpetrators. Danish media have reported a Russian naval vessel specialised in submarine operations, the SS-750, was photographed near the site of the blasts days before the attack. US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reported in February the US was behind the blasts and that Norway assisted. It was dismissed as “fiction” by the White House. Was it a false flag operation? Experts have not ruled out a “false flag” operation by Russia, with clues deliberately placed to pin the blame on Ukraine. Andreas Umland, an analyst at the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies, said he sees Russia as “the most likely” culprit. Any suspected involvement by Kyiv in an attack on Europe’s energy infrastructure could threaten the support of allies, which would benefit Russia. At the same time, the destroyed pipelines could help Gazprom avoid compensation claims for undelivered gas, even though the company was reluctant to keep the taps open before the blasts. Moscow may have sought “to kill two birds with one stone”, Umland said. The Kremlin has strongly denied responsibility. Moscow blames the US Russia has alleged the US was behind the attack, noting the sabotage “occurred after the repeated threats to the Nord Stream by the leadership of the United States”. In March, Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed the argument that Kyiv was behind the explosions, instead laying blame on the US. “Who is interested? Theoretically, the United States is interested in stopping the supply of Russian energy to the European market and supplying volumes of its own,” he told an interviewer. “Such an explosion, so powerful and at such depth, could only be conducted by experts backed by the entire potential of a state that has relevant technologies,” said Putin. Diplomatically sensitive investigations ongoing The blasts occurred in the economic zones of Sweden and Denmark, so both countries launched investigations into the incident. So far, they say the explosions were deliberate, but they have yet to single out who was behind the blasts. Germany also launched an investigation with federal prosecutors searching a yacht in January that might have been used to transport the explosives. They seized objects from the vessel and found traces of explosives. "Goodbye". And down in tears, moved. Zlatan greets Milan without playing and the Curva Sud of Milan pays homage to him with a banner. It says "Godbye", a play on words dedicated to the idol of all time, two-time Italian champion in the Rossoneri shirt and special leader. Milan-Verona opened like this, with Zlatan's moved face next to the bench of the first team, in those sofas from which he never stopped cheering on him during the long months of stop. Ibra, once framed on the big screen, mimicked a heart with his hands, addressed to his fans. Everyone in the stadium is crying, and he laughs at first. Then even his eyes become glossy, red, wet, full of sincere tears, and then even Ibrahimovic the tough guy, Rosengard's boy, the braggart of the ghetto who sings, dances, cries and retires to San Siro. His Rossoneri "The Last Dance" is all in one sentence that cuts through the goodbye and immediately turns into a farewell. Goodbye to the ball. "The time has come to say goodbye to football." And this is how it suddenly appears, after months and months of statements in which Zlatan had proudly shown his chest saying "I want to continue".
Dark suit, pigtail, shirt with the last button open, the whole family in the stands and seventy thousand Milan fans all for him. His wife Helena, framed several times on the big screen, is crying profusely, as are her children. Zlatan's ceremony begins after the 3-1 win against Verona, with a red carpet rolled out to midfield and the players around him. Ibra receives applause and hugs, the last with Pioli, Maldini, Massara and the president Scaroni, who give him a t-shirt with the number 11 autographed by the whole team. All on the notes of "Now we are free", the soundtrack of the Gladiator. Then he leaves: “At this stage many memories bind me, many emotions. I want to thank all my family and those who have been patient with me. And then I say thanks to my second family, the players and the fans, from the bottom of my heart. You made me feel at home." The last sentence is for the entire Rossoneri world: “I will be a Milan fan for life. Now the time has come to say 'hello' to football, but not to you. See you around, if you're lucky." And then row to take the applause during the greeting field lap. Dancing, singing, moving, this time on the notes of "The best" by Tina Turner. Ibra day is a festival of love and passion. Even giants cry their eyes out. We will miss him, but he will never be far away. Nel cuore. Zound Industries made its name making Marshall licensed speakers and now owns the legendary British brand. An end of an era, but what does it mean for guitar amps under the newly formed Marshall Group?
After over 60 years of family ownership, the iconic British guitar amp brand Marshall Amplification has been sold to Swedish speaker company Zound Industries in a deal that will see both brands trade as the Marshall Group. The brand first collaborated on a range of Marshall-branded headphones and Bluetooth speakers for the consumer market under a 2010 licensing deal. It was a deal that was hugely successful, taking the Marshall brand identity onto the streets, with its appeal extending beyond guitar players and reaching people who had never picked up the instrument before. Other brands such as Orange and Fender diversified accordingly, launching their own ranges of bluetooth speakers and headphones. In agreeing to the takeover, the Marshall family will remain the largest shareholder, owning a 24 per cent stake in the Marshall Group. Zound will acquire Marshall Amplification, plus its subsidiaries Natal Drums, Marshall Records, and Marshall Live Agency. With double-digit profitability and combined revenues of over $360 million, the Marshall Group is in a strong position to compete in both consumer and musician markets. But the big question for musicians is what will the move mean for the future of an amplifier brand that changed the face of popular music in 1962 with the launch of the late Jim Marshall’s first amp design, the JTM45, and provided the sound and the power for a new generation of players including Pete Townshend, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. The most-recent high-profile launch from Marshall was its Vintage Reissue Pedals, which saw the return of the cult classic Guv’Nor, Drivemaster, Bluesbreaker and Shredmaster drive pedals. New amp designs, however, have been thin on the ground. Jim Marshall’s heirs, his daughter Victoria Marshall and son Terry Marshall, will sit on the board of the Marshall Group, and said in a statement that the move will extend the brand’s appeal. “Since my father and I created the original Marshall amp back in 1962, we have always looked for ways to deliver the pioneering Marshall sound to music lovers of all backgrounds and music tastes across the world,” said Terry Marshall. “I’m confident that the Marshall Group will elevate this mission and spur the love for the Marshall brand.” Swedish home prices continued to slide in March as stubborn inflation and surging borrowing costs extend a housing market crunch in the country. Residential property prices in the largest Nordic economy declined by 0.8% last month, data from the state-owned mortgage lender SBAB published on Monday showed. The decline had slowed to 0.6% in February, but most experts say housing prices will continue to fall and may even surpass the forecast 20% drop-off. Housing prices plunged by 15% in nominal terms last year, driven by surging inflation and interest rate hikes by the central bank. The worst housing-price slump in three decades in Sweden has contributed to a surge in defaults, particularly in the construction industry, which is responsible for 11% of the country’s economic output. In March, bankruptcies in the sector surged 14%, which has suppressed investment in new dwellings.
The chief economist at SBAB, Robert Boije, called the March slide “surprisingly strong” adding that he expects “significantly weaker development going forward if the Riksbank continues to raise the policy rate and inflation continues to remain at high levels.” Sweden’s housing market is the most vulnerable in the EU due to the country’s rising interest rates. Although about 64% of Swedes own their homes, many have mortgages. However, because in most cases these are not long-term, fixed-rate mortgages, there is a high degree of exposure across the sector to rising interest rates, which are now at their highest levels in more than a decade following a series of hikes by the Riksbank. Industry experts say housing prices are also strongly affected by unusually high electricity prices and warn that the decline in the Swedish property market may last for years. Sweden won't share findings of the investigation into the explosions of the Nord Stream gas pipelines with Russian authorities or Gazprom, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said on Monday.
A Swedish crime scene investigation of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines from Russia to Europe has found evidence of detonations and prosecutors suspect sabotage. Last week Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin sent a letter to the Swedish government demanding that Russian authorities and Gazprom would be allowed to be involved in the investigation, which Sweden denied. On Monday Andersson said Sweden won't even share the findings of the explosions that took place in the Swedish economic zone, with Russian authorities. "In Sweden, our preliminary investigations are confidential, and that, of course, also applies in this case," she told reporters. |
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