Category Archives: Sweden

Swedish composer becomes Spotify’s most-famous musician you’ve never heard of

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Johan Röhr’s 2,700 songs have been streamed 15bn times and have more plays than Britney Spears or Abba

A “secret” composer who has released music under hundreds of different names has been identified as Sweden’s most-listened-to artist on Spotify – pulling in more plays than Britney Spears or Abba.

Johan Röhr, a Stockholm-based musician, has been unmasked as the person behind more than 650 different artists on the streaming service who have been played 15bn times, making him Sweden’s current most-played artist.

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Climate activists across Europe block access to North Sea oil infrastructure

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Blockades at facilities in Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, with protests in Scotland and action expected in Denmark

Climate activists in four countries are blocking access to North Sea oil infrastructure as part of a coordinated pan-European civil disobedience protest.

Blockades have been taking place at oil and gas terminals, refineries and ports in Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, in protest at the continued exploitation of North Sea fossil fuel deposits.

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Swedish police forcibly remove Greta Thunberg from parliament entrance

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Thunberg and other activists dragged away from doorway they were obstructing in climate protest

Swedish police have forcibly removed Greta Thunberg and other climate activists after they blocked the entrance to the Swedish parliament for a second day.

Two officers lifted Thunberg and dragged her away before putting her down on the ground about 20 metres away from the door she had been obstructing.

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Sweden’s veteran peace movement stung by ‘reckless’ entry to Nato

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Activists say public debate has been shut down by overhyped claims of imminent war since Ukraine invasion

The Swedish flag will be raised on Monday outside Nato’s HQ in Brussels. But while the prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, basks in the glow of his country finally joining the western military alliance after months of delays, Sweden’s once thriving peace movement is smarting.

Once widely visible in debates and on the streets – particularly over nuclear weapons, disarmament and the Vietnam war – the movement had already been on the wane since the end of the cold war.

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Sweden finally joins Nato after nearly two-year wait

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Hungary dropping opposition allows historically neutral country to become member, cementing alliance’s control of Nordic region

Sweden has officially became the 32nd member of Nato, in a landmark moment for the historically neutral country and the western military alliance.

Stockholm’s ratification process was finally completed in Washington as Sweden and Hungary, the last country to ratify Sweden’s membership, submitted the necessary documents after a drawn-out process that has taken nearly two years.

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Swedish police call for ban on civilians wearing bulletproof vests

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Growing numbers buying protective gear as gangs recruit young people amid surge in violence across country

Police in southern Sweden have called for a ban on civilians wearing bulletproof vests, which they say do not have a place outside war zones because they cause fear in communities.

Increasing numbers of children and young people, including those under 15, are wearing protective vests in towns and cities, they said, as gang crime continues to pull in the younger generation in Sweden.

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Sweden rules out sending troops to Ukraine after Nato membership agreed

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Ulf Kristersson distances himself from Macron, saying ‘France’s tradition is not the Swedish tradition’

Sweden’s prime minister has ruled out sending troops to Ukraine for now – saying the subject is “not relevant at all” – putting down a clear marker between himself and Emmanuel Macron as he prepares for his historically neutral country to imminently join Nato.

Ulf Kristersson, who on Monday hailed a “historic day” as Sweden’s Nato membership was finally approved by Hungary, clearing the Nordic country’s path to join the western military alliance, said that while he respected “France’s will to help Ukraine”, Sweden would be following its own path.

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Sweden international Kristoffer Olsson in hospital after collapsing at home

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  • Midtjylland midfielder on ventilator at hospital in Aarhus
  • Olsson affected by ‘an acute disease related to the brain’

Sweden midfielder Kristoffer Olsson is on a ventilator in hospital after collapsing at home due to a brain condition, his club Midtjylland have announced.

The 28-year-old, who had a spell at Arsenal as a teenager, has not appeared for the Danish club since December and there had been mounting speculation over his absence.

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Sweden will complete its ‘long farewell to neutrality’ with Nato accession

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For Swedes it means a dramatic change of national identity, while the alliance gets greater control of the Baltic Sea

Just a few short months ago, Sweden’s Nato membership seemed a very long way from being a done deal. Having submitted its application to join in May 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it seemed at times as though Stockholm might be left hanging interminably. While Finland, which had applied to join the alliance at the same time as its neighbour, became a member at record speed last April, Sweden got stuck in a diplomatic quagmire.

Last summer a series of Qur’an burnings in Sweden inflamed ties with Turkey, making a “yes” from Ankara look unlikely and at times inconceivable. And as recently as September, Viktor Orbán’s government was embroiled in a public war of words with Sweden over criticism of Hungary’s democracy and teaching in Swedish schools. Late last month, after Turkey’s parliament had given Sweden the green light, the Hungarian prime minister was still pushing for negotiations in a public letter to his Swedish counterpart, Ulf Kristersson.

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Julian Assange: key dates in the WikiLeaks founder’s case

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How Assange went from being questioned in Sweden to living for years in Ecuador’s embassy in London

Julian Assange is to make his final bid for an appeal against a UK judge’s ruling over his extradition to the US.

The WikiLeaks founder is wanted in the US over an alleged conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information after the publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

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Google stops notifying publishers of ‘right to be forgotten’ removals from search results

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Move comes after Swedish court rules that informing webmasters about delisted content is breach of privacy

Google has quietly stopped telling publishers when it has removed websites from its search results under European “right to be forgotten” rules after a ruling in a Swedish court which the search engine is applying globally.

Previously, when an individual applied to have records about them expunged under EU data protection laws, Google would notify the publisher of the original articles.

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Family of Swede imprisoned in Iran fear death penalty verdict is imminent

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EU diplomat Johan Floderus’s sister calls on Sweden to start speaking up loudly to demand his release

The family of a Swedish EU diplomat imprisoned in Iran for more than 663 days fear he will be given a death sentence or life imprisonment within the coming days after prosecutors sought the maximum sentence in his case.

“I ask how can this be happening? He is my brother and I’m like: they want to kill my younger brother? That is very hard to take in. I also feel so sad for him being there alone, you know, when I see the pictures of him I just want to be there for him,” said Johan Floderus’s sister, Ingrid.

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Sweden to drop inquiry into Nord Stream pipeline explosions

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Investigators previously found blasts that damaged undersea pipelines in 2022 were an act of sabotage

Swedish prosecutors have said they will end their investigation into the sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in 2022, dodging the question of who destroyed the then new energy link between Russia and Europe shortly after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

After a near 18-month inquiry, the investigators concluded they did not have jurisdiction in the case because Sweden’s citizens and interests had not been harmed.

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Decades of research destroyed after freezer fails at Swedish university

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Estimated value of the samples thought to be in the millions as incident reported to police

Research samples collected over decades at a Swedish medical university were destroyed when a freezer malfunctioned during the Christmas holidays, the institute has said.

The samples were stored in tanks cooled with liquid nitrogen, at a temperature of -190C, at Karolinska Institutet (KI) in Stockholm.

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Orbán boycotts parliament session called to ratify Swedish Nato bid

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Hungary remains alone in holding up Stockholm’s accession despite PM’s promises not to be last to ratify

Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party has boycotted a session of parliament called by the opposition to ratify Sweden’s Nato membership, even as a group of western ambassadors arrived in the building to urge a vote.

For months, the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, repeatedly promised his counterparts within Nato that the country would not be last to sign off on Sweden’s membership.

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Judge throws out case against Greta Thunberg and other London protesters

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Court rules not enough evidence provided to prove defendants failed to comply with section 14 order at anti-fossil fuel rally

Greta Thunberg and four others charged with public order offences over a protest in London have been cleared after a judge ruled that they had no case to answer.

Thunberg was charged alongside Christofer Kebbon, Joshua James Unwin, Jeff Rice and Peter Barker with “failing to comply with a condition imposed under section 14 of the Public Order Act”.

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Police in Sweden destroy ‘live’ device outside Israeli embassy

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Police described the object as a ‘dangerous object’ as Sweden’s prime minister condemned the ‘attempted attack’

Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson condemned “an attempted attack” against the Israeli embassy in Stockholm, after an object found outside it was destroyed by the bomb squad on Wednesday.

Police said a “live” device had been found by staff on the embassy premises on Wednesday, calling it “a dangerous object”, although they did not specify what it was.

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Getting fitter can reduce prostate cancer risk by 35%, study finds

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Increase in cardiorespiratory levels of 3% annually found to be beneficial, Swedish research suggests

Men can reduce their risk of prostate cancer by as much as 35% by doing a little more jogging, cycling or swimming, a study suggests.

Boosting cardiorespiratory fitness by only 3% over the course of a year was linked to a much lower chance of developing the disease. The findings prompted the researchers to encourage men to boost their fitness levels to help cut their prostate cancer risk.

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EU must defend Ukraine even if US reduces military support, Macron says

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French president says future security architecture of Europe could no longer be settled by the US and Russia

The European Union has to make bold decisions to defend Ukraine, pre-empting any US decision to withhold or reduce its military support, Emmanuel Macron has said.

In a speech in Sweden, which hopes to be the next country to join Nato, the French president also said the future security architecture of Europe, including arms control agreements covering European territory, could no longer be settled simply by the US and Russia, and Europe had to have a right to determine its own future.

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Swedish music stars call for Israel Eurovision ban over Gaza

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Open letter signed by more than 1,000 musicians from 2024 host country follows petition from artists in Finland and Iceland

More than 1,000 musical artists from Eurovision host country Sweden have signed an open letter calling for Israel to be excluded from this year’s edition of the song contest over its “brutal warfare in Gaza”.

Published in Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, the open letter says that by allowing Israel to participate, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) “is exhibiting a remarkable double standard that undermines the organisation’s credibility”.

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