Author: DW

The Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, was originally set up to ensure the economic growth and stability of the subregion. But with some members leaving the bloc, is it slowly disintegrating? Source link

A student group that has led protests in Bangladesh against a quota on government jobs said Monday it has withdrawn its calls for a complete shutdown.  Dozens of people have been killed in the unrest last week, while authorities imposed an internet shutdown and a curfew.  On Sunday, the country’s Supreme Court scaled back the controversial quota system. Controversial Bangladesh civil service job quotasTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video What are Bangladesh students demanding? Hasnat Abdullah, a coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, told the Associated Press (AP) news…

Protesters have set the Bangladesh government 48 hours to meet a new set of demands after the country’s Supreme Court dramatically scaled back a controversial quota system for the allocation of government jobs.Clashes between demonstrators and security forces have killed at least 147 people across the country since violence broke out last Tuesday. Thousands were injured as security forces fired tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades in an attempt to curb the demonstrations. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 0:45 Bangladesh army patrols streets Students have been demonstrating for weeks over the allocation of civil…

When Patagonia was hit by a wave of unusual, extreme weather, it measured temperatures as low as -15°C. It is winter in the Southern Hemisphere, but those temperatures were beyond normal. Ducks froze to death in ponds. Sheep were stuck in piles of snow. And military personnel transported food to affected areas for people and livestock. “This is an unusual phenomenon,” said Raúl Cordero, a climatologist at the University of Santiago de Chile. But, said Cordero, this was not the first of the season and “may not be the last.” What’s the origin of the extreme cold in Patagonia? The…

A gunman has shot dead five people in a nursing home in the Croatian town of Daruvar, some 130 kilometers (80 miles) east of the capital, Zagreb, Croatian media and officials reported on Monday. The Index news portal said five people died immediately, while others were wounded and still receiving medical assistance. The suspect fled the scene, but the police soon caught him in a cafe near the facility, the report said. Police officials said in a statement that they were carrying out an investigation, but gave no details. Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that “We are appalled…

A gunman has shot dead five people in a nursing home in the Croatian town of Daruvar, some 130 kilometers (80 miles) east of the capital, Zagreb, Croatian media reported on Monday. The Index news portal said five people died immediately, while others were wounded and still receiving medical assistance. The suspect fled the scene, but the police soon caught him in a cafe near the facility, the report said. Police officials said in a statement that they were carrying out an investigation, but gave no details. Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that “We are appalled with the…

Israel’s military has confirmed the deaths of two men who were taken as hostages by Hamas on 7 October.”Today, the IDF informed the families of the two hostages Alex Dancyg and Yagev Buchshtab that they are no longer alive,” the Israeli Defence Forces said in a statement on X. “Alex and Yagev were brutally abducted into Gaza and their bodies are still being held by Hamas.”The confirmation of their deaths comes after thorough intelligence review and expert committee approval of the Ministry of Health in cooperation with the Ministry of Religious Services and the Israel Police.”The circumstances of their death…

“It’s a really nice feeling that we’re the first sibling pair to go to the Olympic Games and the Paralympics,” a delighted Malte Braunschweig tells DW. “It’s really cool to be able to say that you’ve left at least a small footprint in the history of the sport,” brother Ole says. The two swimmers from Germany are standing next to the pool in Berlin. They have just finished a training session and are resting in the recovery pool. At the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo 2021, the two Berliners became the first pair of brothers to represent Germany at the two events.…

In the end, it was his age that prevented Joe Biden from running for president again. The US president has announced he will not seek reelection in November. Biden will see out the rest of his term in office, but the Democrats will look for a new presidential candidate at their convention in August. Calls from his allies in the Democratic Party and the US media for the president to withdraw his candidacy had been getting louder since his disastrous performance in a TV debate against Donald Trump on June 27. Biden’s frail appearance and his many bungled, confused answers had fueled concerns that, at 81,…

Taiwan on Monday launched the annual Han Kuang drill, during which the island nation’s preparedness for a possible Chinese invasion is tested and refined. The five-day exercises come as relations between Taipei and Beijing are particularly strained following the inauguration speech on May 20 of President Lai Ching-te, which China denounced as being full of separatist content. China considers democratically governed Taiwan to be its territory and has not ruled out using military force to assert its claimed sovereignty. What will happen during the drills? Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense has said that this year’s drill will probe the island nation’s ability to protect critical…