Author: DW

South Korea has accused North Korea of firing a suspected ballistic missile towards the North’s east coast. South Korea’s joint chief of staffs said the launch was made on Wednesday morning, but did not give any further details. Japan’s defence ministry also said North Korea had launched a suspected ballistic missile.The missile reportedly landed outside of Japan’s exclusive economic zone – an area of sea that a country claims the rights over to conduct economic activities – and no damage was reported, Japan’s Kyodo news agency said.Earlier this week, North Korea criticised the deployment of US aircraft carrier, the Theodore…

Mining giant Rio Tinto insists draft environmental impact assessments it has now released early prove its site in Serbia is environmentally safe to extract lithium. In an interview with DW, Chad Blewitt, the managing director of Rio Tinto’s Jadar mine in northern Serbia, said they want to “get out of the disinformation, all the false claims, and have a fact based dialogue.” The project has faced years of intense controversy and protests by Serbians who fear the extraction of a lithium compound will pollute rivers, destroy surrounding farmland, and force people off their land.Rio Tinto’s Chad Blewitt insists that agriculture will not be…

Israel and Lebanon have been exchanging fire for months, with the conflict threatening to escalate into a full-scale war. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Sunday that the end of the intense phase of fighting in Gaza would allow Israel to deploy more forces along the northern border with Lebanon. Israeli officials have threatened a military offensive into Lebanon if there is no negotiated end to push Hezbollah, a powerful Shia militia in Lebanon, away from the border. These rising tensions have led to a surge of unsubstantiated claims and fake videos on social media over the weekend. DW…

Protesters in Kenya have been shot dead and fires started inside parliament after politicians voted in favour of a controversial tax bill.The Kenya Medical Association said at least five people had been killed and 31 injured. Images from the scene appeared to show a number of motionless bodies on the ground.Paramedics at the scene said earlier they believed at least 10 people had been killed and around 50 hurt.It happened as police opened fire when protesters in Nairobi overwhelmed them and entered the parliament compound. Thousands were on the streets of the capital on Tuesday to demand politicians vote against…

A number of African nations have a deep historical relationship with Russia going back to when it was the Soviet Union and supported their independence struggles. Russian President Vladimir Putin started rekindling these ties and seeking new ones about a decade ago. His support ranged from more conventional military assistance and weapons sales to running mass disinformation campaigns against political rivals. Russia is widely recognized to have made remarkable advances in strengthening both its diplomatic and economic ties on the continent in this time. As for Ukraine, before it was invaded by Russia, it had scant diplomatic infrastructure in Africa, with…

Tensions between China and the Philippines escalated rapidly following a violent clash last week between their sailors in the South China Sea (SCS). Videos published by the Philippine military showed Chinese Coast Guard personnel ramming and boarding Philippine naval boats and confiscating their weapons. Philippine officials claimed the Chinese boarders were armed with swords, spears and knives. They said several Filipinos were injured in the incident, including one sailor who lost his thumb. While Manila described the Chinese as behaving like “pirates,” Beijing justified its actions by claiming the Chinese side simply took “necessary measures” such as interceptions and boarding…

Afghans flooded the country’s streets in their thousands on Tuesday to rejoice in their men’s cricket team reaching the T20 World Cup semi-finals for the first time.Celebrations erupted throughout the Taliban-run country as people in Kabul, Khost, Jalalabad and beyond enjoyed the dramatic victory over Bangladesh. Rashedullah, a resident of the southeastern Khost province said: “This event has given reason for hope for the youth who were previously disappointed”. Image: Male fans celebrated their victory Tuesday. Pic: AP That group of young people won’t include women, of course, whom the Taliban have forbidden from playing cricket.The Taliban seized power again…

Wins against Australia and Bangladesh have secured Afghanistan a first men’s cricket World Cup semifinal berth. It is a remarkable achievement but, for many observers, it’s also troubling. Source link

The case of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, which has now dragged on for some 14 years, has a political and legal dimension that goes far beyond the documents Wikileaks once published. DW documents the developments: 1. Biographical Julian Assange was born on July 3, 1971, in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. As a young man, he was interested in computer technology and learned to program. In the 1990s, he made a name for himself in the Australian hacker community and ended up in an Australian court in 1996 for hacking attacks. The judge sentenced him, but also attested to his “intellectual curiosity.”…

Maxim from Vilnius is soon to be 22. He’s Lithuanian, from a Russian-speaking family. Last year, he was conscripted for nine months of military service. “There was a man in our unit who showered every other day at best — in the summer,” Maxim recounted “Can you imagine the smell? I showered twice a day. After a few weeks, we and the commanders gave him a serious talking-to.” Stationed with an infantry brigade in Taurage, a small city in southwestern Lithuania near the Russian enclave Kaliningrad, he said in his service he was confronted with people he hardly would have met outside…