Author: DW

“I’m hurt. All the Saturday mothers are hurt. Every new day is worse than the last when you have no certainty, no gravestone to visit,” Emine Ocak says. At 88, the co-founder of a protest movement demanding answers about disappearances in state custody finds that her memory isn’t what it used to be. For her daughter, Aysel Ocak, things are a little different. “When it comes to my brother Hasan, the memory, the pain is still fresh,” she says. The last time they heard from Hasan was March 21, 1995. Over the phone, he promised to bring fish and cake that…

It was the largest such maneuver in history: Operation Overlord, the landing of Allied troops in German-occupied France, had been planned and practiced for months. Bad weather delayed the operation, but, on June 6, 1944, the time had come. Thousands of ships, supported from the air, took off from the southern coast of English and brought about 150,000 soldiers from the US, UK, Canada and other Allied countries to the beaches of Normandy. Their goal was to liberate France and then advance on Germany to put an end to Nazi rule throughout Europe. When Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler learned of…

The last 12 months have all been over the critical threshold of 1.5 degrees of global warming, according to a new analysis of temperature data.Global average temperatures from June 2023 to May 2024 were 1.63 degrees above the 1850-1900 “pre-industrial” baseline according to Copernicus, the EU’s climate monitoring service. A short-term annual breach isn’t the same as global warming remaining consistently above 1.5 degrees compared to the average for pre-industrial times that global climate negotiations are trying to avoid.But it is a reminder of how temperatures continue to rise in line with carbon emissions from human activities and the importance…

The fall-out from Nepalese mountaineering star Nirmal Purja being accused of sexual harassment and assault has seen brands and tour companies distance themselves from the 40-year-old. But members of the scene say it is not just isolated incidents. They believe the whole culture of mountaineering needs to change to make women feel safer. The storm blew up on May 31 when Lotta Hintsa, a mountaineer and model from Finland, accused Purja of serious offences in a hotel room in Kathmandu last year. He began undressing her against her will and then pleasured himself in her presence, Hintsa told the New York…

“I am so happy we have stopped the BJP from winning a majority,” Lata Kumar, a domestic worker in India’s capital, New Delhi, told DW, referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.     The BJP failed to win a majority on its own in the country’s parliamentary elections, final official results showed after vote counting on June 4. The party secured just 240 of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India’s parliament, down from the 282 and 303 it won in the 2014 and 2019 general elections, respectively. The outcome means Modi will remain in…

It came as a small shock to Guatemalan exporters: According to local media reports, China recently banned the import of Guatemalan coffee and other goods. There was no official explanation. Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo, however, presumed that there was a connection to his country’s ties with Taiwan. “We will take care of it,” Arevalo said. Apart from Paraguay, Guatemala is now the only Latin American country with diplomatic ties to Taiwan. Beijing regards the island nation as part of China. In recent years, Honduras and Nicaragua changed sides, turning their backs on Taiwan and seeking rapprochement with China. Several small conflicts in Latin America The blockade of…

Myanmar is producing and exporting more illicit drugs as an ongoing civil war between the ruling military junta and armed ethnic rebels batters the agriculture-based economy.  Myanmar has been in crisis since February 2021 when the military ousted the country’s democratically elected government in a coup that sparked mass protests, and eventually an armed insurgency. According to a report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Myanmar’s opium fields grew by 18% to a total of 47,100 hectares (181 square miles) in 2023. Myanmar’s surge has also coincided with Afghanistan’s opium farming dropping almost completely after the Taliban took…

Around Pegasus Bridge, there is a swirl of action. A group of bagpipers are playing, crowds of bikers, many ex-military, are drinking coffee and clusters of organisers are going through last-minute plans. D-Day latest: Queen moved to tears as veteran recalls landing horrorOn the far bank, two dozen Dutch soldiers are being given instructions.This was where D-Day started, a quarter of an hour after midnight, when troops landed near Benouville Bridge, and took it over. It was a crucial success at the start of the longest day. The British troops had the image of a Pegasus on their uniforms and…

If you read German reports about the recent flooding disaster in the southern part of the country, you will likely come across mention of “Vb weather conditions.” These conditions, which are seldom reported in English-language media, were first described in 1891 by German meteorologist Wilhelm Jacob van Bebber, who cataloged typical paths of low-pressure systems and labeled them with Roman numerals. Although the terms Va, Vc and Vd have since fallen out of popular usage, Vb (pronounced five-B weather conditions, V = Roman 5) is still used by meteorologists to describe a rare pressure system that can bring heavy rainfall,…

“Europe is being destroyed. The consequences of pointless aid for Ukraine.” This quote has been attributed to Till Lindemann, lead singer of the German band Rammsteinon social media. However, Lindemann has never made such a statement as the band’s management confirmed to the German Press Agency DPA.  This is just one example of a pattern to spread disinformation. The popularity of a famous person is used to polarize or influence people’s opinions mainly on controversial political topics. Lindemann is not the only celebrity used to spread anti-Ukrainian sentiments. Some German actors and international stars have been affected as well. Fake quote cards featuring…