Author: DW

Masoud Pezeshkian, a moderate who has promised to open Iran to the world, is expected to win the run-off presidential election on Friday based on early results, reports said. Voters in Iran hit the polls in a run-off election to choose a successor to late President Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash in May along with the foreign minister and other officials. The two contenders are Saeed Jalili, 58, a hard-liner who is a former negotiator with the West over Iran’s contentious nuclear program, and Pezeshkian, 69, a heart surgeon and reformist politician who was health minister…

A new beginning for Britain and suddenly we find ourselves in a world turning itself inside out, posing clear challenges to the incoming Labour government.The swing to the left in the UK comes just as some of our closest partners appear to be veering in the opposite direction. After the chaos of right-wing Conservative rule, Britain has embraced the opposite: a left-wing government with a huge majority and a future that looks relatively stable and calm, dare we say it, even quite dull.You cannot say the same for our neighbours and allies. After years of mocking and deriding the British…

Portugal’s Joao Felix missed what proved the decisive spot kick in Hamburg’s Volksparkstadion on Friday night, sending France through to the Euro 2024 semifinals.  Joao Felix’s shot against the post was the only miss of the shootout, as France won 5-3 on penalties following a 0-0 draw after extra time.  Theo Hernandez netted France’s fifth penalty to seal the win; there was no need for a 10th and final spot kick from Portugal.  Ronaldo makes his penalty, France survive shootout sans Mbappe Portuguese veteran superstar Cristiano Ronaldo played all 120 minutes and scored his penalty.  But his bid to repeat the fairytale…

Russian opposition politician and outspoken Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza has been moved to a prison hospital, his wife Evgenia said on messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter, on Friday. “Vladimir Kara-Murza was transferred to a prison hospital. His lawyers weren’t allowed access to him,” she wrote, adding that she was unaware of his condition. Kara-Murza, 42, is currently serving a 25-year jail sentence for treason in an Omsk prison after he repeatedly condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine and urged Western sanctions against Moscow. The jail sentence was the harshest sentence imposed on an opposition politician since the start of Russia’s full-scale…

US President Joe Biden called on Friday his debate performance against Donald Trump on June 27 “a bad episode,” as the president continued attempts to reassure skeptical Democrats following the critical debate. In his first TV interview since the debate, Biden suggested it was a one-time occurrence because he was exhausted due to a heavy cold and lingering jetlag. What did Biden say about the debate? Biden told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he had a “bad night” the evening of the debate, according to a clip released ahead of the interview. He added that there was “no indication of any serious condition.” He took full responsibility for…

Slovakia’s prime minister has appeared in public for the first time since an assassination attempt left him fighting for his life.Robert Fico was shot four times at close range in mid-May in what prosecutors have described as a terrorist attack. Speaking from a podium at a castle ruins dating back 11 centuries, Mr Fico hit out at progressive ideologies he said were “spreading like cancer” and hurting the country.”I don’t want Slovakia to be among the countries that make a caricature of Western civilization,” he said.Mr Fico’s leftist-nationalist government has quickly shifted policy since taking power last September, including changing…

Germany’s last few tournaments have ended in recriminations, rage and retirements. Though it still stings, the feeling of a 2-1 defeat to Spain in the quarterfinals of Euro 2024 on Friday comes with plenty of pride and no little optimism for the future. “It’s sad that it’s over,” said striker Niclas Füllkrug, who went desperately close to sending the game to penalties in the dying moments. “There was a euphoria, a sense of community that hasn’t existed for a long time. It’s getting harder by the second to realize that [it is over]. There is silence in the dressing room. The…

Life is becoming ever more difficult for Tanzania’s ethnic Maasai, as a representative for the group’s women told DW. She did not want her name to appear in print over concerns for her safety. Numerous representatives of the ethnic herding people have been arrested over the past several years whenever they have criticized the policies of the Tanzanian government. “Two pregnant women recently died,” said the representative. She reported that there had been heavy rain and roads were impassable. “Nearly every week there is a pregnant woman dying in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and in Loliondo,” she said. Other DW…

Daniel Dahan, the chief rabbi of Lyon, made it clear from the start that he wasn’t advising anyone in his synagogue to leave France. He said that would be just what antisemites wanted — to let Jewish people believe they didn’t belong in France and should “go back to where they came from.”  Instead, Dahan is advising those in his congregation to remain in France and to stand up for democracy. His approach is quite different from that of a rabbi in Paris who recently advised French Jews to emigrate to Israel. Still, something else Dahan made clear when speaking about the…

An ultra-conservative archbishop has been excommunicated by the Vatican after being found guilty of schism. Schism is one of the gravest crimes in canon law and occurs when someone withdraws submission to the Pope or his Catholic subjects. Carlo Maria Vigano served as the Vatican’s ambassador to the US from 2011 to 2016 but went into hiding in 2018.This came after he alleged Pope Francis knew about US cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s sexual misconduct and did nothing about it.The Vatican has rejected this claim. Vigano also branded the Pope a “false prophet” and a “servant of Satan”, before calling for him…