Sept 15,2022:The head of Sweden’s Moderate Party, Ulf Kristersson, said on Wednesday he would begin the work of forming a new government after Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson conceded her Social Democrats had lost the weekend’s general election.
The Moderates, Sweden Democrats, Christian Democrats and Liberals appear set to get 176 seats in the 349-seat parliament to the centre-left’s 173 seats, according to the latest figures from the election authority.
A handful of votes remain to be counted, but the result is unlikely to change significantly.
Sept 13,2022:Ukrainian troops have seized even more territory from Russian forces as they continue their counter-offensive, the country’s president has said.
Volodymyr Zelensky said troops have now retaken more than 6,000 sq km (2,317 sq miles) from Russian control since September, in the east and the south.
Russia has admitted losing key cities in the north-eastern Kharkiv region, in what is seen by some military experts as a potential breakthrough in the war.
Moscow describes its troop withdrawal in recent days as a “regrouping” with the aim of focusing on the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in Ukraine’s east.
That claim has been ridiculed even in Russia, with many social media users there describing the stated pull-out as “shameful”.
Speaking to the BBC on Monday evening, Mason Clark of the US-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said this was “a complete rout” of the Russian troops, who were forced to leave lots of equipment behind.
And the BBC’s James Waterhouse said it was the most significant Russian military retreat since its failed campaign near the capital Kyiv in late March.
Sept 12,2022:Near final results in Sweden’s election Sunday show that a bloc of right-wing parties was expected to defeat a left-wing bloc headed by Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson. The conservative group includes a populist anti-immigration party that made its best ever showing.
However, the result was so close that the election authority said it would not be known before Wednesday when some uncounted votes, including those cast abroad, have been tallied.
According to the early count, Andersson’s ruling left-wing Social Democrats won 30.5% of the vote, more than any other party. However a bloc of four left-wing parties appeared to fall short as a whole of winning a majority of votes in the 349-seat parliament, or Riksdag.
Exit polls had initially predicted a narrow victory for Andersson’s camp but as the evening wore on, and the vote count supplanted the exit poll, the results tipped in favor of the conservatives.
Early Monday, the conservatives appeared to have 176 seats to 173 for the center-left.
In a speech to her supporters, Andersson said that while the results were unclear, it was obvious that the social democratic movement, which is based on ideals of creating an equal society and a strong welfare state, remains strong in Sweden.
The biggest winner of the evening was the populist anti-immigration party, the Sweden Democrats, which had a strong showing of nearly 21%, its best result ever. The party gained on promises to crack down on shootings and other gang violence that have shaken a sense of security for many in Sweden.
The party has its roots in the white nationalist movement but years ago began expelling extremists. Despite its rebranding, voters long viewed it as unacceptable and other parties shunned it. But that has been changing, and its result in this election show just how far it come in gaining acceptance.
Sept 08,2022:Ukraine has recaptured over 700 sq kms (270 sq miles) of its territory in the east and the south during a lightning counter offensive, a Ukrainian general said on Thursday, offering the first official assessment of the operation.
The gains, if confirmed and held, are a serious blow for Russia which Western intelligence services say has suffered huge casualties. It also would represent a significant boost for Kyiv, which is keen to show its Western backers that it can change the facts on the ground by force and deserves continued support.
Some of the biggest gains appear to have been made this week during a surprise Ukrainian counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine which saw Kyiv’s forces make a sudden and deep thrust behind Russian lines.
Sept 06,2022:Russian gas supplies to Europe will not resume until sanctions against Moscow are lifted, the Kremlin has said.
The Kremlin said on Monday the Western sanctions were the sole reason behind Russia’s decision to shut the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. Moscow initially said it was shutting the pipeline, which supplies gas to Europe, for maintenance.
This statement came amid a deepening energy crisis across Europe further exacerbated after Gazprom, Russia’s state-run energy company, announced on Friday that a three-day maintenance work due to an oil leak in one of the pipeline’s turbines will extend indefinitely.
The Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which has been operational since 2011, is the single biggest gas pipeline carrying gas between Russian and Western Europe.
The European Union snapped back at Moscow’s move with the European Commission spokesman saying that the complete halt of gas flows was made under “fallacious pretences”. EU officials have repeatedly accused Moscow of intentionally stemming or reducing the flows in retaliation for Western sanctions and support of Ukraine.
The United States also accused Russia of using energy as a weapon, adding though that Europe will have enough gas to face the winter months.
Sept 06,2022:The U.N. nuclear watchdog is due to issue a report on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in Ukraine on Tuesday, a day after shelling cut its electricity supplies for the second time in two weeks and raised fears of catastrophe.
Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of risking nuclear disaster by shelling near Europe’s largest nuclear plant, which officials said disrupted power lines on Monday and took the sole remaining reactor offline.
The incident came as Ukrainian forces pressed their counter-attacks in the south and east, raising the national flag over a town in Kherson province, a southern region occupied by Russia since the war’s early days.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), citing information supplied from Ukraine, said the plant’s backup power line had been cut to extinguish a fire but that the line itself was not damaged and would be reconnected.