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Europe’s Path To War And Self-Destruction

Brussels is working hard to boycott Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s EU Council Presidency. The background: Orbán’s trips to Kiev, Moscow and Beijing, which were aimed at negotiating a ceasefire agreement, are infuriating EU leaders and the governments in Berlin, Paris and other capitals. There is certainly a lot that can be said against the right-wing Hungarian head of state and Trump friend, who is responsible for a whole series of rule of law deficits in his home country. But to accuse him of a diplomatic initiative that other member states have so far been unwilling or unable to take shows how far the EU has moved away from its former claim to be a force for peace.

Sweden Closing Nordsteam Investigation Is A Shocking Coverup

The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal interviews Swedish engineer Erik Andersson, who led the first independent investigation to the site of the Nordstream pipelines blast sites, on the Swedish government’s sudden closing of the investigation into the terror attack on the eve of joining NATO. Andersson also addresses US meddling in Swedish politics, and the potential consequences of Stockholm surrendering its traditional neutrality to the anti-Russian alliance.

Extinction Rebellion Protested Around The Entire North Sea

In an unprecedented act of coordinated international climate protest, Extinction Rebellion activists from the UK, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands protested in solidarity with each other against new North Sea fossil fuels extraction. Under the campaign North Sea Fossil Free acts of civil disobedience happened all around the North Sea. The governments of these six countries are permitting new fossil extraction infrastructure, harming not only the North Sea ecosystem, but also committing the whole world to dangerous levels of warming.

Sweden: Production Of ‘Palestine Cola’ Starts In Malmo

Two Palestinian brothers in the Swedish city of Malmo have started production of a soft drink called “Palestine Cola” that is intended to be an alternative to Coca Cola and Pepsi for those who do not wish to buy products from companies which support Israel. Both of the well-known brands are subject to a boycott campaign due to their support for the occupation state. Social media pages dedicated to solidarity with Palestine posted a video clip showing the two brothers producing the drink in solidarity with the Palestinians.

Nordic Countries Surrender Their Historic Neutrality

Most of the Scandinavian countries especially Sweden and Finland had pursued a policy of neutrality towards the US and the erstwhile Soviet Union, and later Russia, since the onset of the Cold War. Despite significant pressure from centrist and center-right sections to join NATO, Finland and Sweden had been committed to formal neutrality for a long time. However the ongoing war in Ukraine has led to a rise in militarism and Russophobia in the region, and sections within the social democratic parties called for NATO membership and an enhanced defense cooperation with the US. NATO has already increased its military footprint in the Baltic region in the garb of aiding Ukraine in the war against Russia.

Elon Musk’s Swedish Problem

Unfortunately for Elon Musk, the lord and master of the Tesla electric automobile company, the Swedish peasants have grabbed their pitchforks. One hundred twenty Tesla mechanics in seven service centers are demanding a collective agreement with the company, one that aligns with all other labor-management agreements in this heavily unionized country. Approximately 90% of the Swedish workforce falls under such agreements. Musk isn’t having any of it. How dare a union tell him what he can and cannot do with his workers! For the first time in his life, however, he may be learning a lesson in labor solidarity. The 120 peasant-mechanics are not alone.

Tesla Faces Scandinavian Labor Revolt

Tesla faces a growing revolt in Scandinavia after Danish dockworkers joined a sympathy strike with Swedish mechanics, heaping pressure on the electric vehicle giant to grant collective bargaining rights to employees. Members of Swedish trade union IF Metall have been at loggerheads with Tesla for six weeks, and have garnered support via a secondary strike action from fellow workers across a range of industries in Sweden, including postal workers, painters, dockworkers and electricians. Tesla CEO Elon Musk bemoaned the blockage of license plate deliveries by postal workers as “insane” and late last month filed lawsuits against both the Swedish Transport Agency and the postal service.

Tesla Union Pressure Increases In Sweden As Dockworkers Escalate Strike

Dockworkers in Sweden pledged on Friday to refuse to offload Tesla (TSLA.O) cars at any of the country's ports as they expanded their industrial action in sympathy with Tesla workers' demands for collective bargaining agreements. Tesla, co-founded by billionaire Elon Musk, does not manufacture in Sweden, but its electric cars are serviced by more than 120 mechanics affiliated with Swedish union IF Metall, which began a strike on Oct. 27. Dockworkers joined the strike by mechanics on Nov. 7, blocking Sweden's four largest ports to Tesla cars. That was expanded to all ports on Friday at 12 a.m. (1100 GMT)

How Swedish Love For The US Turned Deadly

Generally speaking, Swedes really love the US. And I don’t just mean, oh we love the Brad Pitt movies and the whimsical images of Sunset Blvd (which by the way is way less whimsical in real life). No, I mean that Swedes really love the whole propagandized packaged-with-a-bloody-bow-on-top United States. There are more than a few cowboy-themed bars and restaurants in Stockholm. Hell, there’s even a TGI Friday’s. Some stores aim to peddle only American goods, which ultimately means they sell pop-tarts and peanut butter. Younger Swedes will adopt US slang, folding it into their Swedish sentences as awkwardly as one might try to fit a TGI Friday’s into a cobblestone and tree-lined promenade.

What Sweden Can Teach The US About Overcoming The Housing Crisis

The housing-supply crisis in the United States has most impacted low- to moderate-income households. And, while the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) program plays a valuable role in increasing housing access for low-income families, there is no similar source for moderate-income households. Lacking a targeted funding scheme, the demand for moderate-income housing grows, yet the supply is negligible. There are loud voices demanding resources for moderate-income households, but there is not as yet an agreed-upon policy or viable funding format to meet that demand. Limited Equity Housing Cooperatives (LEHC) — a cooperative corporation that owns the entire site of the cooperative, including all the apartments and buildings on the site — could be a supplier of much-needed, permanently affordable housing for moderate-income households.

The Arctic Is The Next Frontier In The New Cold War

The Arctic had once been a largely peaceful zone, harboring cooperative international scientific research. But today, it is swiftly becoming one of militarized power politics. Heavily armed nations surround the melting Arctic Ocean, with its unstable environment of eroding shorelines, accessible natural resources, and contested maritime passages. This February, the U.S. launched little publicized, month-long military exercises in the Arctic, hosted by Finland and Norway. The Pentagon’s European Command described the exercises – named Arctic Forge 23, Defense Exercise North, and Joint Viking – as a way “to demonstrate readiness by deploying a combat-credible force to enhance power in NATO’s northern flank”.

The Good Work In Urban-Rural

A new course in Sweden poses the question, “what will a self-sufficient Hällefors Municipality taste like in 2030?” Students on the course act like talent scouts. They search for unrealised food-growing potential across the region – people, unused land, forgotten traditions. An example could be a farmer who’s started to grow heritage wheat, but cannot find customers. Or a school teacher who wants to connect his students with a working farm. A student might spot an abandoned field near her home and and explore new ways to grow food there. Another might develop snacks to sell to a mountain bike business in the forest. At the end of each course, students pitch their ideas to real-world professionals – for example, chefs, farmers, or food production businesses.

Sweden Hustled Into Military Pact With US

The Biden administration’s efforts to put on fast track Sweden’s accession as a NATO member petered out as Turkey balked, exercising its prerogative to withhold approval unless its conditions regarding Stockholm’s past dalliance with Kurdish separatist elements is fully addressed. President Biden was bullish and insisted publicly that Sweden’s NATO membership was a foregone conclusion. He underestimated President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s tenacity and overlooked the geopolitical ramifications. Biden and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg assumed that all that was needed was a face-saving formula to pander Erdoğan’s vanity — ie., a few Kurdish militants in Sweden would be extradited and Ankara and Stockholm would thereupon kiss and make up.

Sweden Expands Espionage Law, Endangers Press Freedom

Sweden’s parliament adopted a major espionage law expansion that will permit the country’s police to investigate journalists, publishers, and whistleblowers if they reveal secret information that “may damage Sweden's relationship with another state or an international organization.” Journalists, publishers, or whistleblowers found guilty of revealing such “damaging” information could be sentenced to up to four years in prison under the new law. The expansion was aimed at ensuring the Swedish government has even more control over what the public learns about the country’s cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union, and the United Nations.

Swedish Neighbors Conserve Water by Holding ‘Ugliest Lawn’ Contest

On the island of Gotland in Sweden, residents have spent this year letting their green lawns die off in a mass effort to conserve water. Irrigation bans led neighbors to get creative, offering a title to whoever ended up with the ugliest lawn. For this year, Marcus Norström’s lawn took the crown. The jury described the winning lawn humorously as “a really lousy lawn that lives up to all our expectations of Gotland’s ugliest lawn and has good conditions for a more sustainable improvement.” The jury also said the lawn exhibited “meritorious laziness” and “great care for our common groundwater,” as reported by The Guardian. The prize: a visit from Sara Gistedt, one of the lawn judges and a gardener, who will advise Norström on what drought-resistant plants to add to his property.

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