Author: DW

A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli strike on south Lebanon has carried the Olympic torch in Paris to honour killed and injured journalists.Christina Assi, of Agence France-Presse (AFP), was one of six journalists struck by Israeli shelling on 13 October while reporting on an exchange of fire along the border between Israeli troops and Hezbollah. She was severely wounded and had part of her right leg amputated. The attack killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah.AFP videographer Dylan Collins, who was also wounded in the Israeli attack, pushed Ms Assi’s wheelchair as she carried the torch across the…

Barcelona plans to increase the tourist tax for cruise passengers staying in the city for less than 12 hours, the mayor revealed in a Sunday interview. “We are going to propose.. substantially increasing the tax for stopover cruise passengers,” Jaume Collboni told El Pais newspaper. It is the latest in a series of measures that he has announced to reduce the impact of mass tourism. It comes just weeks after protesters in Barcelona, chanting: “Tourists go home,” sprayed visitors with water as part of a demonstration against mass tourism. Fewer, higher paying tourists wanted According to Statista, Barcelona reported the highest…

Pakistan on Sunday lodged a complaint with the German government after a group of protesters broke into the Pakistani consulate in Frankfurt and took down the national flag that was there. On Saturday, a crowd of about 400 people carrying Afghanistan flags took part in a demonstration outside the consulate, police said. What did Pakistan say? Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said in a social media post: “Yesterday a gang of extremists breached the premises of Pakistan’s consulate in Frankfurt, Germany endangering the lives of its consular staff. “Pakistan has lodged a strong protest with the German Government,” Dar said on X, formerly Twitter. A separate…

A “brave and heroic” father has died after being struck by a train while trying to rescue his twin daughters whose pram had rolled on to the tracks in Australia.One of the two-year-old girls was also killed while the other sister was not injured in the tragedy at Carlton railway station in Sydney on Sunday, Australia’s 9News reported.New South Wales (NSW) Police Superintendent Paul Dunstan said the girls’ mother, who was uninjured, witnessed the tragedy and has been left “incredibly traumatised”.Supt Dunstan told reporters the parents had taken a lift down to the station platform where they took their hands…

Police rescued a 90-year-old man on Sunday morning from a protestant church in Apolda, in the central German state of Thuringia, after the man rang church bells around 3 a.m. local time (0100 GMT) as a call for help. The man is a resident of a local nursing home. He was scheduled to visit an event at the local Lutheran church on Saturday evening. After he failed to check in at the home at 8:30 p.m., however, the nursing home employees reported him as missing. They described him as “extremely [mentally] reliable and focused,” according to a police statement. Police launched…

Just a few days after his 74th birthday, the election of communist André Chassaigne as National Assembly president would have been considered among the crowning achievements of his career. The left-wing alliance New Popular Front (NFP) — comprised of socialists, communists, greens and the far-left party France Unbowed (LFI) — had unexpectedly nominated the provincial politician as their joint candidate for the country’s fourth highest state office. But after Thursday’s vote, the New Popular Front, the surprise winner of the snap parliamentary elections called by President Emmanuel Macron at the beginning of July, remains empty-handed. In the decisive third round…

China and the Philippines have reached a deal they hope will end confrontations over a disputed territory in the South China Sea.The Philippines occupies the Second Thomas Shoal, which is also claimed by Beijing. The years-long territorial stand-off has flared repeatedly since last year – with increasingly hostile confrontations sparking fears of a larger conflict that could involve the US.Chinese coastguard and other forces have used powerful water cannons and dangerous blocking manoeuvres to prevent the Philippines from delivering food and other supplies to navy personnel in its outpost in the shallows of the shoal.A deal to end confrontations was…

China and the Philippines have reached a deal they hope will end confrontations at a fiercely contested atoll in the South China Sea. “The Philippines and the People’s Republic of China have reached an understanding on the provisional arrangement for the resupply of daily necessities and rotation missions to the BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal,” the Philippine Foreign Ministry said Sunday, using the Filipino name for Second Thomas Shoal. The Philippines occupies the Second Thomas Shoal, but China also claims it. Hostile maritime confrontations Increasingly tense maritime confrontations over the shoal have raised concerns about a potential broader conflict…

There was an inevitability about the Israeli strikes and, early on Saturday evening, the military’s fighter jets pounded the Yemeni port city of Hodeida.Local people reported seeing warplanes streaking across the sky before explosions thundered through the city – it’s reported a number of people were killed. The IDF had vowed to respond to hundreds of Houthi attacks on Israel and the strikes on the port – which Israel says was a “dual use” civilian and military target – was the retaliation. Image: A map showing the Yemeni city of Hodeidah But the Houthi attack that provoked the response happened…

Skip next section Russia says US jets prevented from crossing its borders07/21/2024July 21, 2024Russia says US jets prevented from crossing its bordersRussia says it deployed MiG-31s to ward off an attempted border violationImage: Pavel Golovkin/AP/picture alliance Russian warplanes prevented two US strategic bombers from crossing the Russian state border over the Barents Sea, Russia’s Defense Ministry says. In a statement, the ministry said the military had scrambled MiG-29 and MiG-31 fighter jets to intercept the planes. “As the Russian fighter jets approached, the American strategic bombers adjusted their flight course … and subsequently turned away from the state border of the Russian…