Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Sweden’s shift to the left, evidence of U.S. war crimes in Iran, and Canada’s response to possibly joining the European Union.

What was supposed to be an easy parliamentary win for Sweden’s ruling right-wing coalition instead resulted in a bitter defeat and the formal resignation of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Thursday. Although the center left now faces a tough road to form a government, progressive leaders are hailing the result as a significant blow to the far right, whose influence over Europe has only grown in recent years.

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Sweden’s shift to the left, evidence of U.S. war crimes in Iran, and Canada’s response to possibly joining the European Union.

What was supposed to be an easy parliamentary win for Sweden’s ruling right-wing coalition instead resulted in a bitter defeat and the formal resignation of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Thursday. Although the center left now faces a tough road to form a government, progressive leaders are hailing the result as a significant blow to the far right, whose influence over Europe has only grown in recent years.

Analysts initially assumed that Sunday’s parliamentary election would be a shoo-in for Kristersson’s bloc; after all, the premier had unified the country’s right-leaning parties, whereas the left remained largely fragmented. However, Kristersson’s decision to ally with the far-right Sweden Democrats appears to have backfired, as voters seem to have taken issue with the party’s neo-Nazi and white supremacist roots despite the group having successfully pushed forward one of the continent’s strictest migration policies to date.

“After four years of a right-wing government with the far right, the Swedes are once again backing the welfare state, social justice and the green agenda,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who leads one of Europe’s few progressive governments, wrote on X.

According to results released by the Swedish Election Authority on Thursday, Kristersson’s bloc secured 173 seats in the 349-seat parliament. This put the conservative coalition three spots shy of the country’s four left-wing parties, led by the Social........

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