In northern Sweden, EU and Swedish officials have inaugurated the first spaceport for satellite launches on the European Union mainland.

Around 200 protesters, mostly students, held a demonstration in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka on Monday, Jan. 23, condemning the burning of Muslim’s divine book, the Quran, in Sweden.

Kurds living in Sweden are concerned over an agreement reached between the Swedish and Finnish governments and Turkey, which has threatened to block the two countries from joining NATO over their alleged harboring of Kurdish militants.

Kurdish and anti-Islam protests in Sweden have angered Turkey, threatening the Nordic countries' joint NATO application. Turkey has thus far blocked the pair's NATO bid.

The Turkish president reiterated Ankara's demands that Sweden extradite "terrorists." Finland and Sweden have made a joint bid to join the military alliance, ending decades of non-alignment.

People in Turkey are protesting a Quran burning that occurred in Stockholm last week. The controversy could stall Sweden's NATO bid, which needs Ankara's approval.

The conversational service, introduced as Bard, comes after rival Microsoft announced it was investing in ChatGPT. Google said Bard would be integrated into its search engine.

Microsoft says it is revamping its Bing search engine and Edge web browser with artificial intelligence akin to ChatGPT, in the hopes of making inroads into Google's dominance of online searches.

An anti-NATO rally in Stockholm that would have included the burning of a Quran has not been allowed to go ahead. It comes after a similar incident sparked threats from NATO member Turkey.

Finland and Sweden's NATO membership bids remain blocked by members Turkey and Hungary. Germany's top diplomat Annalena Baerbock said she expected their NATO accession to take place "without further delay."

Turkey has agreed to discuss Sweden and Finland's membership bid with NATO. The two countries decided to join the security alliance after Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February. Negotiations began last June, but were called off in January.

Sweden is using its presidency of the EU Council to keep European countries mobilised in their support for Ukraine, and to try to enforce the current sanctions on Russia more effectively. Sweden's EU Affairs Minister Jessika Roswall speaks to Talking Europe about those issues, as well as Sweden's application to join NATO, and Stockholm's other priorities in its EU presidency, which is now two months into its six-month stint.