Virat Kohli is arguably the most popular cricketer on the planet, and is loved by a billion people in his own country. He even boasts 270 million followers on Instagram. However, one man who does not recognize him is legendary Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Filming a video with YouTube content creator ‘IShowSpeed’, Ibrahimovic could not recognize Virat Kohli, and admitted that he had not heard of him before either. Speed then referred to Kohli as the ‘GOAT’ (Greatest Of All Time) of cricket.

At first, Speed (real name Darren Jason Watkins Jr.) asked Ibrahimovic if he knew Virat Kohli. Hearing a no from Ibrahimovic, Speed proceeded to show him a picture of Kohli. However, much to Speed’s surprise, Ibrahimovic failed to recognize him.

“No. I’ve never seen cricket in my life. Not being disrespectful, but no,” said Ibrahimovic, when Speed showed him Kohli’s picture.

“Is he some kind of big player?” asked Ibrahimovic.

Watch: Zlatan Ibrahimovic fails to recognize Virat Kohli

| WATCH: Speed asks Zlatan Ibrahimovic if he knows Virat Kohli pic.twitter.com/qd5t5w8ZJp

— Speedy HQ (@iShowSpeedHQ) July 9, 2024

“He’s the GOAT,” replies Speed. “He is the GOAT in a different aspect, man. You’ve got to learn the different GOATs in different aspects,” continued the 19-year-old YouTube sensation.

It is not a surprise that Ibrahimovic may not know Kohli, as cricket is not a widely-played sport in Sweden. The country ranks 55th in ICC’s T20I team rankings.

Ibrahimovic – who ranks 15th in the list of most goals scored in football history (561) – retired from football at the age of 41 last year. His last club was Italian giants AC Milan.

American YouTuber Speed, on the other hand, boasts more than 26 million subscribers on YouTube, and is popular for his love for Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo. However, Speed is also a fan of Virat Kohli, and recently went to watch India vs Pakistan during the 2024 T20 World Cup at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York.

Gothenburg:

The killer was only 14 and had lived in youth homes as a ward of the authorities since he was eight.

A year ago, a gang helped the boy escape, put him up in a hotel, and gave him cannabis, food, and new clothes. Six days later, gang members told him it was time to repay them for their kindness. They had a job for him.

Together with another youth, the boy, who as a juvenile cannot be identified, shot dead a 33-year-old Hells Angels biker. He was convicted by a court that described the case as a gangland contract killing.

As he was too young to be sentenced, he was handed back to social services and sent to another youth home.

Sweden has long prided itself on one of the world’s most generous social safety nets, with a state that looks after vulnerable people at all stages of life.

But these days it also has another distinction: by far the highest per capita rate of gun violence in the EU. Last year 55 people were shot dead in 363 separate shootings in a country of just 10 million people. By comparison, there were just six fatal shootings in the three other Nordic countries – Norway, Finland, and Denmark – combined.

In an increasing number of cases, courts have found the epidemic of violence emerging from Sweden’s archipelago of youth homes, built to serve the dual purpose of looking after children in state care and punishing youth offenders.

According to accounts for this story from eight sources including a former gang member, several youth home workers, prosecutors and criminologists, the homes have turned into recruiting grounds for gangs, who use them to enlist killers too young to be jailed.

TROUBLED TEEN TO ‘CAREER CRIMINAL’

Yayha, now 23, was first sent to a youth home at 16, finding himself bunking with seven other boys in a dormitory wing in Gothenburg, the gritty port city on Sweden’s west coast that houses the biggest harbour in Scandinavia.

His father had died a couple of years earlier. He had dropped out of school and was convicted of assault and theft, beating up other kids, and stealing their phones and clothes.

During his year in the home, members of one of Gothenburg’s criminal gangs became his new family, he told Reuters in a coffee shop by the harbour in the city where he now works as a carpenter after escaping the gang life.

“I was a troubled teen when I entered and came out a career criminal. I went from fighting and stealing from other kids to selling drugs by the kilo,” said Yayha, who asked that his surname not be used to prevent his former gang from finding him.

“You wanted the respect, the clothes, the rings, the money but also friendship. They were the people you hung out with anyway. Later it became more serious and you had to do things that you really didn’t want to, but that is the way it works.”

The wave of violence has come to overshadow all else in Swedish politics, driving the rise of a rightwing coalition with the support of the far right, which came to power in 2022, ending the latest eight-year period of rule by the Social Democrats, Sweden’s dominant political party since the 1930s.

The new government has promised to tackle crime. So far it has further restricted Sweden’s previously generous immigration policies, introduced harsher sentences for gun crimes, and given police increased surveillance powers. Even the military has been called on to help out.

“It is obvious that our system wasn’t built for this type of criminality,” Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer told Reuters.

He said the government was working on a revamp of the entire youth criminality prevention system, including giving more powers to social services. New youth prisons would house the most hardened criminals, keeping them separate from youth homes.

“I think it is clear that in reality, the state-run homes have functioned as a kind of recruitment base from the criminal networks,” Strommer said. “It’s a monumental failure.”

‘LINKEDIN FOR YOUNG CRIMINALS’

Sweden’s youth homes have varying degrees of security, with around 700 of the most troubled youths housed in 21 homes run by a state body, the National Board of Institutional Care (SiS).

Children with social problems can find themselves sleeping in beds next to those who have committed serious crimes. Most children stay for less than a year but some can be held for up to four years.

The homes are often fenced off, with schools and parks on the premises. While the youths are not allowed to leave without permission, security is often lax.

Residents have access to phones and tablets making it possible for gang members to contact them from outside. In one case now being tried, prosecutors have charged a boy of 15 with planning and ordering three murders in Stockholm from inside a youth home.

Birgitta Dahlberg, head of youth care at the SiS, told Reuters it was unfair to blame the homes for their inability to deal with serious violent offenders, which they were not designed to handle.

“When it comes to serious criminality, it is fair to say that the legislation has not given us the right conditions,” she said, noting that until regulations were changed just weeks ago staff did not even have sufficient authority to take away residents’ mobile phones.

Children as young as 12 are often gang members already by the time they arrive, said Alexander, who works at the Gothenburg home where Yahya stayed. He declined to give his surname as he was not authorised to speak publicly.

“Out of our 40 boys, around half are gang affiliated when they come here,” he told Reuters.

“If you put two new kids in a wing where six out of eight inmates are with the Foxtrot gang, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what could happen,” he said, referring to one of the largest gangs believed to have hundreds of members.

Two other youth home workers, speaking on condition of anonymity, gave similar accounts of rampant gang membership among their charges.

In theory, the youth homes aim to rehabilitate young offenders to prevent them from becoming adult criminals. But according to a report released weeks ago by the Swedish National Audit Office which supervises the government, nine out of ten gang-affiliated youngsters at youth homes go on to relapse into crime, and almost eight out of ten eventually end up in prison.

The youth homes seem to do more harm than good, said Stockholm prosecutor Lisa dos Santos, who has handled numerous cases of youth gang crimes.

“One police officer described them as LinkedIn for young criminals,” she said. “You wonder what effect they have had in spreading gang crime when boys from different parts of the country are put together.”

While Swedish law allows criminal prosecution of people as young as 15, those under 18 are very rarely sent to prison even for serious crimes. Dos Santos said gangs are exploiting this, deliberately recruiting children to commit acts that would lead to a long jail sentence for an adult.

Sweden has about 14,000 active gang criminals and an additional 48,000 people loosely affiliated with gangs, according to a police report last year.

Other European countries such as the Netherlands, France, and Belgium are also struggling with violent gangs, but Sweden has outpaced them all in gun violence, by wide margins.

In 2022, there were 73 youths in Sweden aged 15-20 suspected of murder or attempted murder with firearms, up from just 10 a decade earlier, according to the Crime Prevention Board, a government agency.

According to EU statistics agency Eurostat, 25 people aged 15-24 were killed by gun violence in Sweden in 2021, second in the EU only to France, which had 40 such deaths across a population six times the size of Sweden’s.

Nils Duquet, director of the Flemish Peace Institute, a leading European gun violence think tank, said the reliance of Sweden’s gangs on young recruits to commit violent crimes had created a different culture around guns than elsewhere in Europe.

Elsewhere, criminal gangs tend to reserve access to guns for older and more senior members, he said. In Sweden, the youngest are expected to pull the trigger.

“Because there are so many young criminals with access to guns, that makes it so violent,” Duquet said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Iran has summoned Sweden’s charge d’affaires in Tehran over “baseless and biased” accusations made by a Swedish official, Iranian state news agency IRNA reported on June 1.

Sweden’s security service said on Thursday that the Iranian government had been using criminal networks within Sweden to carry out violent acts against other states, groups and individuals.

Seamstress Tove Lycke works on NATO flags, at the flag manufacturer Flagghuset, in Akersberga, outside Stockholm, Sweden, March 7, 2024.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

INS Kolkata assists two merchant vessels hit in Gulf of Aden

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CJI asks if Speaker did not contradict Supreme Court to bank on legislative majority to decide Shinde camp as ‘real’ Shiv Sena

The Supreme Court on March 7 asked whether Maharashtra Speaker Rahul Narwekar “contradicted” a Constitution Bench judgment to bank on ‘legislative majority’ as a criterion to declare Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s faction as the “real” Shiv Sena.

Sandeshkhali reports misleading, Bengal safest for women, says Mamata Banerjee

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Almost 60% of the funds received by national political parties are from ‘unknown’ sources

Almost 60% of the funds received by political parties cannot be traced and come from “unknown” sources, including electoral bonds, according to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

CCS approves development of AMCA, India’s fifth-gen fighter

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India sending unemployed poor to Israel: Arundhati Roy

The unemployed poor of India are being sent to Israel to fill up the vacancies created by Palestinians leaving jobs due to the ongoing Israel-Palestinian conflict, noted writer and activist Arundhati Roy stated. A message from Ms. Roy was read at an event by Indians for Palestine on March 7 at the Press Club of India where the organisers said that more than 30,000 Palestinians have died so far under Israeli attacks and called for “immediate and urgent action” to help civilians trapped in Gaza.

Tribal Affairs Ministry, ISRO to collaborate on use of V-SAT centres for Internet in 80 tribal villages in pilot project

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs is planning to collaborate with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to deploy V-SAT stations on a pilot basis for around 80 tribal villages in Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Maharashtra to bring Internet services there, according to a proposal unveiled on Thursday at a ministry event meant to brainstorm innovative projects for tribal development.

Centre releases additional DA to employees, pensioners

The Union Cabinet, which met in New Delhi on March 7, decided to release an additional instalment of Dearness Allowance (DA) to Central government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to pensioners with effect from January 1, 2024. The increase will be four percentage points over the existing rate of 46% of the basic pay/ pension, to compensate against price rise, the government said. Other allowances, including house rent allowance, canteen allowance and deputation allowance, will also be increased subsequently.

Sweden officially joins NATO after completing its accession process, ending decades of neutrality

Sweden on March 7 formally joined NATO as the 32nd member of the transatlantic military alliance, ending decades of post-World War II neutrality as concerns about Russian aggression in Europe have spiked following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Days after PM Modi congratulated him, Pakistan PM Sharif thanks him for the greeting

Pakistan’s newly-elected Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his greetings on social media on Thursday, even as the two countries showed no signs of any thaw in ties at present.

Rahul Gandhi likely to seek re-election from Wayanad

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Every citizen has a right to criticise abrogation of Article 370: SC

The Supreme Court on March 7 quashed an FIR accusing a college professor in Maharashtra of spreading enmity and disharmony by terming the abrogation of Article 370 a “black day” and wishing “happy independence” to the people of Pakistan in a WhatsApp group of faculty and parents.

Seamstress Tove Lycke works on NATO flags, at the flag manufacturer Flagghuset, in Akersberga, outside Stockholm, Sweden, on March 7, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Sweden on March 7 formally joined NATO as the 32nd member of the transatlantic military alliance, ending decades of post-World War II neutrality as concerns about Russian aggression in Europe have spiked following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken presided at a ceremony in which Sweden’s “instrument of accession” to the alliance was officially deposited at the State Department.

“This is a historic moment for Sweden. It’s historic for alliance. It’s history for the transatlantic relationship,” Mr. Blinken said. “Our NATO alliance is now stronger, larger than it’s ever been.”

Later on March 7, Mr. Kristersson will visit the White House and then be a guest of honour at President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address to Congress.

The White House said that having Sweden as a NATO ally “will make the United States and our allies even safer.”

“NATO is the most powerful defensive alliance in the history of the world, and it is as critical today to ensuring the security of our citizens as it was 75 years ago when our alliance was founded out of the wreckage of World War II,” it said in a statement.

Sweden, along with Finland, which joined NATO last year, both abandoned long-standing military neutrality that was a hallmark of the Nordic states’ Cold War foreign policy after Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022.

Mr. Biden, in his speech to Congress, is expected to cite Sweden’s accession to NATO as evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intent to divide and weaken the alliance has failed as a direct result of the Ukraine invasion. And, the Democratic president is expected to use Sweden’s decision to join to step up calls for reluctant Republicans to approved stalled military assistance to Ukraine as the war enters its third year.

Sweden’s membership had been held up due to objections by NATO members Turkiye and Hungary. Turkiye expressed concern that Sweden was harbouring and not taking enough action against Kurdish groups that it regards as terrorists, and Hungary’s populist President Viktor Orban has shown pro-Russian sentiment and not shared the alliance’s determination to support Ukraine.

After months of delay, Turkiye ratified Sweden’s admission earlier this year, and Hungary did so this week.

Washington:

Sweden on Thursday became the 32nd member of NATO in the shadow of the war in Ukraine, ending two centuries of official non-alignment and capping two years of torturous diplomacy.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Thursday hailed his country’s entry into NATO as a “victory for freedom,” as it turned the page on two centuries of non-alignment following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The accession “is a victory for freedom today. Sweden has made a free, democratic, sovereign and united choice to join NATO,” he said at a ceremony in Washington with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“This is a historic day. Sweden will now take its rightful place at NATO’s table, with an equal say in shaping NATO policies and decisions,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement.

“After over 200 years of non-alignment Sweden now enjoys the protection granted under Article 5, the ultimate guarantee of allies’ freedom and security,” he said.

The Swedish government announced it was holding a special government meeting to approve accession.

Later in the day, the Swedish Prime Minister is to attend the annual State of the Union address by President Joe Biden, who has been struggling to persuade the rival Republican Party to approve new aid to Ukraine.

Sweden’s blue and golden-yellow flag is expected to be hoisted on Monday at the Brussels headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance.

Russia has vowed “countermeasures” over Sweden’s entry into NATO, especially if the alliance’s troops and assets deploy in the country.

Sweden and Finland, while both militarily intertwined with the United States and members of the European Union, have historically steered clear of officially joining NATO, formed in the Cold War to unite against the Soviet Union.

After Finland joined last year, Sweden’s membership means all the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea, except Russia, will be part of the US-led military alliance. 

That has led some to label the sea a “NATO lake”, with the Western allies now appearing well-placed to strangle Russia’s room for manoeuvre in the crucial shipping route if a war with Moscow ever breaks out.

– Turning page on non-alignment –

Sweden has not been involved in a war, including World War II, since the Napoleonic conflicts of the early 19th century.

But Finland and Sweden launched a joint bid after Russia in 2022 invaded Ukraine, which had unsuccessfully sought to join NATO — which considers an attack on one member an attack on all.

Finland successfully joined in April 2023. 

Sweden’s candidacy stalled due to an assertive push by Turkey, which demanded that Stockholm, known for its liberal asylum policies, crack down on Kurdish militants who have campaigned against Ankara.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan later demanded action after protesters, enjoying Swedish laws on free speech, desecrated Islam’s holy book the Koran.

In a clear if unstated sweetener, the United States dangled the prospect of F-16 warplanes to Turkey, which has faced the wrath of US sanctions over a major military purchase from Russia.

The Biden administration in January approved $23 billion in F-16 warplanes to Turkey swiftly after it ratified Sweden’s membership.

The United States simultaneously pushed ahead with $8.6 billion in more advanced F-35 jets for Greece, a fellow NATO member that has a historic rivalry and frequent tensions with Turkey.

Even with Turkey’s blessing, Sweden faced another obstacle as it needed approval of a last country — Hungary, whose nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orban, has often thumbed his nose at Western allies.

The Hungarian parliament ratified Sweden’s membership on February 26. But in one last hiccup, Hungary could not formally sign the accession document due to a brief absence in the mostly ceremonial post of president, after an Orban ally resigned in a scandal over pardoning a convicted child abuser’s accomplice.

A recent poll by Swedish broadcaster SR said that most Swedes believe the country made too many sacrifices to join NATO, although more than three-quarters believed NATO would strengthen the country’s security.

Beirut:

The Islamic State group on Tuesday claimed responsibility for a shooting in Brussel’s that killed two Swedes, saying the attack targeted Sweden for its membership in a global coalition battling jihadists.

“An Islamic State fighter carried out an attack against” Swedish nationals on Monday, IS said in a statement issued on the jihadists’ news arm Amaq, adding that, “the attack comes in the context of operations called for by the Islamic State to target nationals of coalition countries”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Stockholm, Sweden:

Sweden’s prime minister summoned the head of the armed forces and the police commissioner in a bid to stem gang violence, he said on Thursday, following a wave of violence that has taken at least 11 lives in September alone.

Two people were killed in separate shootings in Stockholm on Wednesday, and a woman in her 20s, thought to be an innocent bystander, was killed when a bomb tore up a house in Uppsala in the early hours of Thursday.

“This is a difficult time for Sweden. A 25-year-old woman went to bed last night on a completely ordinary evening but never got to wake up,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said during a rare televised address to the nation.

“We will hunt the gangs, we will defeat the gangs,” he said.

Kristersson formed a centre-right minority government after last year’s election with support of the populist and anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats, ending eight years of Social Democrat-led governments in Sweden.

His coalition won the election partly on a promise to stem growing gang violence, and it has launched a series of initiatives, such as greater powers to police and harsher punishment for gun crimes.

The measures have yet to take effect, but Kristersson blamed former governments for the problems.

“It is an irresponsible immigration policy and a failed integration that has brought us here,” Kristersson said.

Sweden had liberal immigration policies for many decades and took in more immigrants per capita than any other European nation during the 2015 migration crisis. Those policies were reversed by the former Social Democrat-led government, but have been tightened by Kristersson’s government. About 20% of Sweden’s 10.5 million inhabitants were born abroad.

Earlier on Thursday, the opposition Social Democrats, the biggest party in parliament, called on the government to change the law, allowing the military to help stop the gang violence.

“This is not Sweden, this is not how Sweden is supposed to be,” Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson told a news conference.

Kristersson said he had summoned the national police commissioner and the supreme commander of the armed forces to evaluate the options.

The police estimate that about 30,000 people in Sweden are directly involved with or have ties to gang crime. The violence has also spread from major urban areas to smaller towns where violent crime was previously rare.

Earlier this week, two people were shot dead and two injured when a gunman opened fire at a bar in Sandviken. The 11 shooting deaths this month make September the deadliest month since December 2019.

“The criminal conflicts in Sweden are a serious threat to the safety and security of the country,” National Police Commissioner Anders Thornberg said in a statement.

“Innocents are murdered and injured. We are doing everything we can within the police and together with others to stop the development.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The Nobel Foundation has withdrawn its invitation for representatives of Russia, Belarus and Iran to attend this year’s Nobel Prize award ceremonies after the decision to invite them “provoked strong reactions.” File
| Photo Credit: AP

The Nobel Foundation said on Saturday it was reversing its decision to invite Ambassadors from Russia and Belarus to this year’s Nobel award ceremony in Stockholm, after the move sparked a backlash.

In 2022, the Nobel Foundation, which organises the annual Nobel prize ceremony and banquet in Stockholm, decided not to invite the Russian and Belarusian Ambassadors to the Stockholm award event because of the war in Ukraine.

They made the same decision regarding the Iranian envoy over the country’s crackdown on a wave of protests.

The Swedish foundation however said on Thursday it was returning to its previous practice of inviting Ambassadors from all countries represented in Sweden, sparking a wave of angry reactions.

The foundation said on Saturday that the decision was based on its belief “that it is important and right to reach out as widely as possible with the values and messages that the Nobel Prize stands for.”

It noted however that the strong reactions “completely overshadowed this message”.

“We, therefore, choose to repeat last year’s exception to regular practice — that is, to not invite the Ambassadors of Russia, Belarus and Iran to the Nobel Prize award ceremony in Stockholm,” the foundation said in a statement.

Also Read: Russia declares Nobel-winning editor Dmitry Muratov to be a foreign agent

Last year, the Norwegian Nobel Institute still invited all Ambassadors to the Peace Prize ceremony it organises in Oslo, and the foundation said this would be the case again.

“As before, all Ambassadors will be invited to the ceremony in Oslo,” it noted.

The decision to once again invite the Russian and Belarusian representatives sparked ire in Sweden and abroad.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko wrote on Facebook that the foundation should support efforts to isolate Russia and Belarus as “millions of Ukrainians suffer from an unprovoked war and the Russian regime is not punished for its crimes”.

On Saturday, Mr. Nikolenko called the reversal a “victory for humanism.”

“We thank everyone who demanded the restoration of justice. We are convinced that a similar decision should be made regarding the Russian and Belarusian ambassadors to Oslo,” he said in another post to Facebook.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson also said on Friday he disagreed with the Foundation’s decision.

“I would not have done it if I were handling invites to an award ceremony and I understand that it upsets many people in both Sweden and Ukraine,” he said in a written statement to AFP.

Writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, Mr. Kristersson on Saturday welcomed the new decision.

“The many and strong reactions show that the whole of Sweden unambiguously stand on Ukraine’s side against Russia’s appalling war of aggression,” Mr. Kristersson said.

Several prominent Swedish politicians, including the leaders of the Centre, Green, Left and Liberal parties, had said they would boycott the event over the Russian Ambassador’s presence.

The glitzy event is held each year in Stockholm on December 10 when laureates in the fields of medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and economics receive their awards from King Carl XVI Gustaf.

A separate ceremony is held in Oslo on the same day for the Peace Prize laureate.

Stockholm, Sweden:

Sweden’s prime minister said Friday he disagreed with the Nobel Foundation inviting the Russian ambassador to this year’s Nobel banquet, adding to growing criticism of the decision.

“The Nobel Foundation of course decides who they want to invite. But like many others, I was greatly surprised that Russia was being invited,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said in a written statement to AFP.

“I would not have done it if I were handling invites to an award ceremony and I understand that it upsets many people in both Sweden and Ukraine,” Ulf Kristersson added.

On Thursday, the Nobel Foundation — which organises the annual Nobel prize ceremony and banquet in Stockholm — said it would extend an invitation to all ambassadors of countries which have representation in Sweden or Norway.

In 2022, the Foundation decided not to invite the Russian and Belarusian ambassadors over the war in Ukraine, and the Iranian envoy over the country’s crackdown on a wave of protests.

“It is clear that the world is increasingly divided into spheres, where dialogue between those with differing views is being reduced,” Vidar Helgesen, the executive director of the Nobel Foundation, said in a statement.

“To counter this tendency, we are now broadening our invitations to celebrate and understand the Nobel Prize and the importance of free science, free culture and free, peaceful societies.”

Several prominent Swedish politicians, including the leaders of the Centre, Green and Left parties, have said they would boycott the event due to Russia’s invitation.

The glitzy bash is held each year in Stockholm on December 10 when laureates in the fields of medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and economics receive their awards from King Carl XVI Gustaf, followed by a gala banquet for around 1,200 guests.

A separate ceremony is held in Oslo on the same day for the Peace Prize laureate.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)