Swedish News:

Swedes pay tribute to an entertainment icon. Sweden participates in UN Conference on Financing for Development. Sweden and America seal the deal with a stamp. 

  • Robert 'Robban' Broberg (1940-2015), beloved folk singer, comedian and entertainer, was born on July 2.
  • Swedes pay tribute to an entertainment icon
    Beloved folk singer, comedian and entertainer Robert “Robban” Broberg died on July 21 after suffering for several years from a rare form of Parkinson’s disease. Broberg, who turned 75 on July 2, was born in Solna, Sweden and established himself through the popular Swedish television show “Hylands hörna.” In 40 years of endearing himself to an ever-growing audience, he released more than 20 albums and was known for many popular songs — many of them hilarious and ironic, others burlesque and still others romantic. He appeared on television in "Tjejjer" and "The Pling & Plong Show," a children’s program in which he dressed as a robot. He grew into a very respected and more serious artist, and in the late 1970s he left Sweden to live and experiment in New York for a few years; he made a comeback in Sweden with a successful one-man show at the Comedy Theatre in Stockholm. Broberg was the recipient of the Povel Ramel karamelodiktstipendium. He continued to entertain throughout the 1990s and 2000s, but illness eventually caused him to withdraw from entertaining. Broberg died quietly with his family around him.

  • "... one of the most important meetings we will ever have," said Sweden's Prime Minister at the climate summit in Paris. Here, he speaks in Malmö on May 1, 2013. Photo Jens Ohlsson, courtesy of Socialdemokraterna.
  • Sweden participates in UN conference
    Bold measures were approved on July 15 by UN leaders to overhaul global finance practices, investments and social and environmental challenges. This groundbreaking agreement, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, came out of the UN’s Third International Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa, at which Prime Minister Stefan Löfven addressed the heads of state and government leaders with a plan, encouragement and pride: “I truly hope that, years from now, we will look back at 2015 and say … this was the year we all acted in response to the global challenges we were confronted with, to the benefit of all. Or, to borrow from Mahatma Ghandi: This was the year we decided to be the change we wanted to see.” The conference was the first of three events in 2015 that stand to set the world on a path to a prosperous and sustainable future. It provides a foundation for implementing the global sustainable development agenda that nearly 150 world leaders will adopt at the Sustainable Development Summit in New York this September, followed by negotiations to agree on reduced global carbon emissions at the UN climate negotiations in Paris in December. Financing is considered the linchpin for the success of the new sustainable development agenda, which will be driven by the implementation of 17 sustainable development goals.

  • The U.S. Postal Service and Posten AB of Sweden are jointly releasing a stamp a stamp, available Aug. 20, of Hollywood legend and award-winning actress, Ingrid Bergman.
  • Sweden and America seal the deal with a stamp
    The U.S. Postal Service and Posten AB of Sweden will team up to honor award-winning actress Ingrid Bergman with her image on the 19th stamp in the Legends of Hollywood series. The stamp, issued jointly by the USPS and Sweden Post, we be available for sale Aug. 20, just nine days shy of Aug. 29, the Swedish celebrity’s birth and death date.
    Bergman lit up the silver screen for decades, starring in many films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for best actress. She is best remembered for her timeless portrayals of Ilsa Lund in Casablanca (1942), Paula Alquist in Gaslight (1944), Anna Koreff in Anastasia (1956) and Alicia Huberman in Notorious (1946). A film festival honoring Bergman is taking place this summer in the Washington, DC area.
    Bergman joins Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart, Alfred Hitchcock, John Wayne, Judy Garland, Audrey Hepburn and Bette Davis, among many others, with a Legends of Hollywood stamp in her honor. The stamp is a 1940s photo taken by Laszlo Willinger, and digitally colorized by Kristen Monthei. Art director Ethel Kessler designed the stamp pane.