Biden ratchets up efforts to secure Sweden’s Nato membership | First Thing

Work to persuade Turkey to drop its objections continues, as president meets Sweden's prime minister at White House. Plus, five ways AI could improve the world

Good morning.

Joe Biden has told the Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, that he is looking forward" to the country's stalled Nato membership bid winning final approval, amid doubts that Turkey will withdraw its opposition in time for a major summit next week.

What else is Biden doing this week? The Oval Office meeting kicks off a string of diplomatic events for Biden, centred on Nato. He leaves on Sunday for a one-day trip to Britain, then will attend the Nato summit in Vilnius and finish up with a stop in the alliance's newest member, Finland.

Will Biden reach out directly to his counterparts in Turkey and Hungary before the summit? He's been pretty, pretty steadfast" on the need to approve the application, said the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre. Sweden is a strong, capable defense partner that shares Nato's values."

What is Threads like? The app closely resembles Twitter visually, although some of the wording has been changed, with retweets called reposts" and tweets called threads". Meta has not been averse to copying rival products in the past, including the 2020 launch of Instagram's Reels feature, noted for its similarity to TikTok's short-form videos.

What has been the reaction to it? Reaction to the debut on Wednesday ranged from caution to enthusiasm, with many praising its ease of use and some saying that Elon Musk should be worried. Others pointed out that the app's speedy integration with Instagram showed just how powerful Meta had become. Much of the conversation, ironically, took place on Twitter, where the hashtag Threads" was trending on Wednesday evening.