Swedish feminists lobby for a lower voting age. Salmonella outbreak linked to spices. Eurovision 2016 comes to Sweden.
Swedish group lobbies for a lower voting age
Gudrun Schyman of Sweden’s Feminist Initiative Party (FI), which doesn’t have any seats in the Swedish parliament, lobbied in early July at Sweden’s annual political forum for a lower voting age in Sweden. The current age is 18, and depending when a person’s birthday falls, it could be a few more years before they can vote in an election. “It's too late. You can be 21 or 22 years old before you are voting for the first time,” Schyman said. “We need to lower the voting age so the average age when voting for the first time is 18 years. This is an important democratic issue,” the FI leader added. The Feminist Initiative Party has been observing Scotland’s experience with giving 16-year-olds the chance to participate in last year's referendum on whether or not the country should remain part of the United Kingdom.
Salmonella outbreak in Sweden linked to spices
An outbreak has caused 140 known cases of salmonella across Sweden in the last eight months, 80 of which were in June and linked to a tavern on Öland, according to Folkhalsomyndigheten (the Public Health Agency and Food Administration). The illness strain is Salmonella Enteritidis, a relatively rare type with only three to five cases reported each year, which can send sufferers to the hospital. Since the outbreak has lasted a long time and has been in many places in the Sweden, officials suspect the source of infection is a food with a long shelf life and a relatively large spread. At the Öland tavern, the disease is likely linked to spices, primarily allspice. While they wait for more testing to prove a link, manufacturer Sevan recalled on July 7 all its allspice containers sold since October 2014.
Eurovision 2016 comes to Sweden
Stockholm has announced that the Globe Arena will be the host venue for the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest. Many cities were in the running to host the event which brings competing artists and songwriters from more than 40 countries; recently Malmö pulled out because of scheduling conflicts. “The area around the Globe is unique in Europe, in that there are four venues. I look forward to welcoming all of Europe to Stockholm and one of the world's largest television events,” said Hanna Stjärne SVT's CEO for Swedish Television News. Now the work begins on finding a show host. Måns Zelmerlöw, the Swede who won Eurovision 2015 in Vienna, is a favorite, as is comedian Petra Mede.
Gudrun Schyman, leader of the Feminist Initiative Party, recently lobbied to lower the voting age to 16. Here she is seen setting ablaze a wad of money worth 100,000 SEK ($13,010) in a stunt to highlight wage disparities between men and women ahead of a national election.
Yahoo! News photo via Reuters/Janerik Henriksson
Swedish security service has received confirmation that the Eurovision final is an ISIS target. High security levels are planned for the May 14 concert at the Globe Arena. The Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm is the largest hemispherical building in the world, seating 16,000 spectators for concerts and 13,850 for ice hockey.
