Stockholm

Music streaming giant Spotify on Jan. 31 reported a total of 205 million paying subscribers at the end of 2022, beating expectations, but its losses deepened.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reaffirmed Wednesday that Turkey won't allow Sweden to join the NATO military alliance as long as it permits protests desecrating Islam's holy book to take place.

The US Embassy in Ankara warned Americans in the country "of possible imminent retaliatory terrorist attacks against churches, synagogues and diplomatic missions in Istanbul or other places frequented by citizens of Western countries".

Turkey's foreign minister on Thursday accused Sweden of being complicit in a "hate and racist crime" for failing to prevent weekend protests in Stockholm by an anti-Islam and pro-Kurdish groups.

Two provocative incidents in Stockholm this month have energised Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan ahead of tight elections and dimmed Sweden and Finland's hopes of joining NATO before the summer, diplomats, analysts and opposition politicians say.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday it was "meaningless" to hold a trilateral meeting with Sweden and Finland to discuss their NATO bids after protests this month in Stockholm.

Speaking at a news conference, Cavusoglu also said there is no offer to evaluate Sweden's and Finland's NATO membership separately.

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer has publicly called on the EU to finance the construction of a 2 billion euro fence along the Bulgarian-Turkish border, where more and more migrants are crossing into the EU. The proposal was repeated by the Austrian permanent representative during the meeting of EU ambassadors on Wednesday.

Turkey has cancelled indefinitely a trilateral mechanism meeting with Sweden and Finland scheduled for February after a weekend protest in Stockholm that drew condemnation from Ankara, state broadcaster TRT reported on Tuesday.

Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said in an interview with Yle (Finland's national public broadcasting company) published on Tuesday that his country may seek to join NATO without Sweden if Stockholm's bid is take more time to be approved.

Sweden should not expect Turkey's support for its NATO membership after a protest near the Turkish embassy in Stockholm at the weekend including the burning of a copy of the Koran, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday.