Author: DW

A United Nations report on Thursday said some 8.5 million people were facing extreme food shortage in Sudan after 14 months of conflict. The document said hunger has now spread to the capital, Khartoum, and Jazira province, which was once dubbed Sudan’s breadbasket. What the study shows The findings come from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) initiative, which includes more than a dozen UN agencies, aid groups, governments and other bodies. It found that 755,000 people face the worst level of starvation, known as Phase 5 by the IPC, in the coming months in 10 provinces, which also…

Police have fired tear gas at dozens of protesters in Kenya’s capital and blocked off roads to the presidential palace as crowds took to the streets again nationwide.The demonstrations took place over a controversial tax hike bill despite the president bowing to pressure to withdraw it. Police fired tear gas canisters at groups of protesters trying to meet up within the central business district of Nairobi. Image: Pic: Reuters/Monicah Mwangi Image: Pic: Reuters/Monicah Mwangi Crowds there, as well as in Mombasa, Kisumu and elsewhere, called for leader William Ruto to go further and step down.At least 22 protesters were reportedly…

Africa’s Sahel region is considered a strategic location for Germany, which has long been a significant player in stabilization and development efforts in the largely francophone region. Following military coups in the Sahel nations of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger in recent years, the ruling juntas have expelled French forces and instead turned to Russia’s mercenary units for security assistance. The putches have also shaken cooperation with Berlin. Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have for over a decade battled an insurgency fought by armed groups, including some allied with al-Qaeda and the so-called Islamic State. Germany was part of the MINUSMA peacekeeping mission…

It is a decision of historic importance, and it has the potential to cause new domestic turmoil in Israel and to fuel a smoldering cultural conflict: The Israeli Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that ultra-Orthodox Jews are also liable for military service. Those who refuse to do so will no longer receive state support. A legal exemption that spared ultra-Orthodox Jews from military service expired in March 2024. Different branches of Judaism Ultra-Orthodox Jews are known as “Charedim” in Hebrew, “Haredim” in English. Unlike Christianity, Judaism does not recognize separate denominations or confessions. However, the Jewish community does distinguish between secular and…

A $5m (£4m) reward is being offered in the hunt for the fugitive “Cryptoqueen” Ruja Ignatova.Bulgarian-born Ignatova, who has German citizenship, has been on the FBI’s most-wanted list since 2022 for fraud and money laundering. The 43-year-old is accused of defrauding investors out of $4bn (£3.3bn) by selling a fake cryptocurrency called OneCoin, founded in Sofia in 2014.The US agency, which has called OneCoin “one of the largest global fraud schemes in history”, previously offered a $100,000 (£82,463) reward for her capture.However, that has now been raised to £4m. “Ignatova is believed to travel with armed guards and/or associates. Ignatova…

Iranians are going to the polls on Friday, June 28, to elect a new president to replace the late Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash last month. The Islamic Republic’s Guardian Council, a panel of Islamic clerics and jurists, had approved the names of six men to run for the election. But on Wednesday, just a day before the election, a candidate withdrew from the race. Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, 53, dropped his candidacy and urged other candidates to do the same “so that the front of the revolution will be strengthened,” the state-run IRNA news agency reported. Hashemi’s…

A United Nations-led meeting with Afghanistan’s Taliban will be held in Qatar’s capital Doha this weekend, in which representatives from some 25 countries are expected to take part. It will be the third such meeting, but the first attended by the Islamic fundamentalist group, which has ruled the war-torn nation since it seized power in August 2021 as US-led troops withdrew after 20 years of war. The UN political chief who will chair the meeting said it’s not about granting recognition to the Taliban. “This is not a meeting about recognition. This is not a meeting to lead to recognition……

At least one person has been killed and 20 others injured after a cable car crashed in Colombia.Officials said the cable car in Medellin – which was part of the city’s public transport system – failed and plunged into a pavement next to a station platform.There were 10 people in the car when it fell, according to the city’s mayor, but it is not yet known if the person who died was on board or on the ground.A 55-year-old man died of multiple injures, the Clinica CES hospital said in a statement. Image: Pic: AP The 20 people who were…

Asteroids and comets were formed about 4.5 billion years ago, during the earliest moments of our solar system.  They orbit the sun, just as planets do. But while it takes a terrestrial year for our planet to fly around the sun, an asteroid can take anywhere between three and six years — they are located in an “asteroid belt” between Mars and Jupiter. Comets, on the other hand, can spend thousands, if not millions, of years way out in the solar system before coming back round the sun. Others don’t even have fixed or “closed” orbits — so, their flightpaths can be…

Oleg Sentsov was used to fighting Moscow even before he enlisted in the Ukrainian Defense Forces, shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It’s just that previously, instead of a gun, he’d used his camera. When Russian special forces arrived in Crimea in 2014, Sentsov was on the ground documenting the annexation of the region. He was arrested, sent to Russia, and given a 20-year sentence on  charges of “plotting terrorism.”In 2015, Sentsov, was arrested in Crimea by Russia’s FSB security service for allegedly forming a group of saboteurs Image: SERGEY VENYAVSKY/AFP/Getty Images Following a coordinated effort by the European Film Academy, Amnesty International and the European Parliament with…