King celebrates

Today, 22 minutes into the noontime newshour, the BBC Arabic ran a clip about the King of Sweden and his family celebrating his fortieth year on the throne. That makes the fourth time in about three weeks that the BBC Arabic has had a story connected to Sweden. That's not bad at all.

First they showed the King and Queen celebrating:

 

 The Queen is in blue and she is holding the King's hand. Sorry for the sloppy picture, but they were moving too fast.

 

Here's the King. He looked happy just a second before, I must have bad luck with my screenshot timing. 

 

I think this toddler is in line to be future Queen of Sweden, so cute!

 

And here she is with her mom, also in line to be future Queen. The BBC Arabic is very serious and focuses on the hard news stories, so I think it was nice that they took the time to show this, even if it was just a short clip.

Sweden was actually in the news twice today. The second time happened just a while later. It was a much more serious affair, and it was repeated with growing emphasis throughout the day. It was about the Syrian chemical weapons report which the UN just released. The head of the weapons inspectors was a Swedish man named Åke Sellström. To be sure, the BBC Arabic presenters pronounced this as A.K. Sellis-strom, and they didn't even mention that he was Swedish. But they showed his picture.

First he showed up with the UN Secretary-General on the BBC Arabic website:

 As you can see, it was the top story. Later on, it alternated with the Washington Naval Yard shooting as the top story.

Then, as they got more footage, they showed the signatures of the chemical weapons report writers.

 

And finally, they beamed in Ban Ki-Moon's press conference live. I think that must be the Swedish man standing in the corner. 

Finally, they showed lots of re-run footage of the hospitals full of people sickened by the chemical fumes, and of the inspectors wearing masks and gloves, taking samples and doing their work.