Author: DW

Croatian President Zoran Milanovic won reelection for another five-year term on Sunday, near-complete official results showed. Milanovic, nominated by the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP), was estimated to have won 74% of the vote, after more than 99% of the ballots were counted. Dragan Primorac, the candidate for the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), secured around 26% of the vote.  Croatia held a runoff vote between the two contenders on Sunday after the first round of voting on December 29.  Who is Zoran Milanovic? Milanovic was first elected president in 2020. He previously served as prime minister from late 2011 until early 2016. A stalwart of…

Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through Romania’s capital, Bucharest, on Sunday to protest the Constitutional Court’s decision last month to order that the presidential election be re-run. They demanded that the vote take place and that outgoing centrist President Klaus Iohannis resign immediately. “We demand a return to democracy through the resumption of elections, starting with the second round,” George Simion of the right-wing Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), said. Why did Romania’s top court cancel the first round? The Constitutional Court initially declared the first round outcome as legal, only to surprisingly annul it two days before the runoff was due…

China on Thursday said that the investigations conducted by the European Union (EU) into Chinese firms constituted “unfair trade and investment barriers.” The announcement from China’s Commerce Ministry followed the completion of a probe into the EU’s examination of foreign subsidies. The Chinese investigation came in response to Brussels looking into whether Chinese government subsidies hurt competition in Europe. The two economic powers have been at loggerheads mainly due to Beijing’s renewables and electric vehicle sectors. Beijing says EU trade practices led to major losses The Commerce Ministry said the EU’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) discriminates against Chinese firms.China fights back…

An explosion at a fuel station in Yemen has killed 15 people and left dozens injured.The blast took place on Saturday in the Zaher district in the province of Bayda, the country’s health ministry said. It triggered a large fire and at least 67 people were injured, including 40 who were said to be in critical condition.Rescue teams were searching for those reported missing, the ministry added.Footage circulating online showed a massive fire that sent plumes of black smoke into the sky and left some vehicles charred and burning. Bayda is controlled by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who have been at…

Zoos in Berlin have closed, while the neighboring state of Brandenburg banned animal transport on Saturday following an outbreak of the highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease. Germany recorded its first cases of foot-and-mouth disease in 35 years in a herd of water buffalo in Hönow, Brandenburg, just outside the Berlin city limits. Operators of Berlin Zoo in the city center and the Tierpark wildlife park in the city’s east said they would remain closed for the time being to protect the animals and prevent the disease from spreading. Animal transport banned, pigs culled In the state of Brandenburg, which surrounds Berlin but does…

“Blame Canada!” goes the satirical song from the 1999 animated comedy film “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut,” in which a mother rallies her small Colorado town to confront youth degeneracy. The song humorously shifts blame to America’s northern neighbor rather than US government policies, parenting failures, or media influence, declaring that “we need to form a full assault  — it’s Canada’s fault.” Decades later, US President-elect Donald Trump appears to be channeling a similar energy, blaming Canada for illegal migration and drug trafficking across the northern border. Weeks after winning a second term in the White House, Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on all Canadian…

“Blame Canada!” goes the satirical song from the 1999 animated comedy film “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut,” in which a mother rallies her small Colorado town to confront youth degeneracy. The song humorously shifts blame to America’s northern neighbor rather than US government policies, parenting failures, or media influence, declaring that “we need to form a full assault  — it’s Canada’s fault.” Decades later, US President-elect Donald Trump appears to be channeling a similar energy, blaming Canada for illegal migration and drug trafficking across the northern border. Weeks after winning a second term in the White House, Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on all Canadian…

Ukraine has captured two North Korean soldiers fighting in Russia’s Kursk region, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.The injured pair are now in Kyiv and communicating with the Security Service of Ukraine, the country’s domestic intelligence agency, he said. Ukrainian special forces and paratroopers captured the North Koreans, Mr Zelenskyy said in a post on X.”As with all prisoners of war, these two North Korean soldiers are receiving the necessary medical assistance,” he said.”I have instructed the Security Service of Ukraine to grant journalists access to these prisoners. “The world needs to know the truth about what is happening.”Mr Zelenskyy said…

The Cook Islands, San Marino, Macau, Aruba, American Samoa and Liechtenstein. All these countries, whether recognized by the United Nations or not, have the chance to play at the World Cup, no matter how unlikely. But that’s not the case for Greenland. The vast island is home to 57,000 people and some of the most extreme weather on the planet, with about 80% of its landmass made up of an ice sheet. Such conditions make outdoor sports, such as football, impossible for 10 months of the year, even on artificial pitches. But, despite the popularity of indoor sports like handball,…

The United States and the United Kingdom imposed further sanctions on Russia’s energy sector on Friday in an attempt to curb funding for Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The US Treasury Department said it was designating two of Russia’s largest oil companies, Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, fulfilling “the G7 commitment to reduce Russian revenues from energy.” The sanctions also apply to 183 vessels that the US government believes are part of Moscow’s “shadow fleet” of ships allegedly used to evade existing sanctions on the transport of Russian oil. In addition, the measures target specific projects and infrastructure for liquefied natural…