Author: DW

The African National Congress, which came to power in 1994 after the end of Apartheid in South Africa, lost its parliamentary majority for the first time, partial results from the general election showed on Saturday. With 99% of the votes from Wednesday’s election counted, the party, once led by Nelson Mandela, secured just over 40%, a far cry from the 57.5% it won in 2019. The party also lost its majority in two of the nine provinces, while the opposition pro-business Democratic Alliance (DA) retained control of a third. The independent electoral commission that ran the election said it would formally declare the results by…

On Sunday, Mexicans will be voting for a new president in an election that marks a major milestone. For the first time in the country’s history, the race has come down to two female candidates: Claudia Sheinbaum (above), of the ruling Morena party, and Xochitl Galvez, of the opposition alliance.Xochitl Galvez is currently polling second though her campaign rallies, like the above, draw many fansImage: Carlo Echegoyen/AFP/Getty Images Claudia Sheinbaum: The favorite The clear favorite in the election is Claudia Sheinbaum, candidate of the left-wing populist Morena party. The granddaughter of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania, Sheinbaum is an experienced politician, having…

Three friends were seen hugging each other moments before being swept away by flash flooding.The two women and a man, all aged in their 20s, were captured on camera embracing after finding themselves suddenly surrounded by rapidly rising waters in Italy. The trio got into difficulties after going for a walk along the Natisone River, near Udine, on Friday afternoon, local media reported.As the water levels suddenly swelled, the group realised they were trapped and alerted passers-by.Firefighters were called and crews quickly arrived at the scene. They attempted to rescue the group by throwing them a rope – but the…

Presidential elections wrapped in Iceland after a day of voting, with businesswoman Halla Tomasdottir projected to win the race, national broadcaster RUV reported. Tomasdottir secured 32.1% of the votes, RUV said. Former Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir, who got 25.8% of the votes, conceded victory to her. In April, Jakobsdottir stepped down as prime minister to run for president. The third closest contender was Halla Hrund Logadottir, an environmental expert and a Harvard University professor. There were 12 candidates in total in the race for president. President Gudni Johannesson was not seeking reelection. The hugely popular president has held the job since 2016…

North Korea sent around 600 trash-filled balloons into South Korea overnight, the South Korean military said on Sunday. The balloons, filled with cigarette butts and plastic, began appearing from 8 p.m. Saturday to 10 a.m. Sunday (1100 GMT on Saturday to 0100 GMT on Sunday), according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. The South Korean military said it is monitoring and collecting the balloons, which are landing in northern provinces, including Seoul and Gyeonggi. Emergency alerts were issued in affected areas. North Korea began sending hundreds of balloons carrying bags of trash earlier this weekImage: AP North Korea, formally…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused China of helping Russia disrupt a global peace conference in Switzerland.Speaking at the Shangri-La defence forum in Singapore, Asia’s premier security conference, on Sunday, Mr Zelenskyy said China is pressuring other countries and their leaders not to attend the “Summit on Peace in Ukraine”, scheduled for 15-16 June. “Russia, using Chinese influence in the region, using Chinese diplomats also, does everything to disrupt the peace summit,” he said.Ukraine-Russia war: Moscow warns it could go to war with NATO”Regrettably this is unfortunate that such a big independent powerful country as China is an instrument in…

Mediators have tried over the weekend to convince both Israel and Hamas to sign up to a new cease-fire proposal for Gaza made public by US President Joe Biden on Friday.  Biden presented the plan as originally an Israeli one, although Israel’s government has voiced criticism of some of the details since then. Still, senior US officials said they were confident of Israeli agreement if Hamas were to sign up.  “This was an Israeli proposal. We have every expectation that if Hamas agrees to the proposal — as was transmitted to them, an Israeli proposal — then Israel would say…

The final results released by the country’s Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) on Sunday showed that the African National Congress (ANC) has suffered a steep fall to just 40.18% — a huge drop from the 57.5% it took in the previous election in 2019. The party once led by anti-apartheid figurehead Nelson Mandela also failed to secure outright majorities in three of the country’s nine provinces in regional election votes. The Western Cape Province was retained by the Democratic Alliance (DA) majority, while the ANC’s stronghold of KwaZulu-Natal was taken by the newly-formed uMkhonto we Sizwe party (MK), led by former president and former…

One person has died and eight were left injured after an apartment building collapsed in Turkey on Sunday.Firefighters were called to a flattened five-storey building in Kucukcekmece in Istanbul after it collapsed at 8.40am (5.40am in the UK). Istanbul Governor Davut Gul said at the scene that seven people were initially pulled from the rubble, with two left severely injured.Later, firefighters recovered a body of a man from Turkmenistan, as well as one more injured person.It is unclear what caused the 36-year-old building to collapse, but there was no sign of an explosion or any seismic activity. Read more on…

Arvind Kejriwal, one of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s most vocal and prominent political opponents, will return to jail on Sunday as his bail term ends. The Delhi chief minister and a leader of an opposition alliance was detained in March over a long-running corruption probe. Kejriwal back behind bars as India voting ends  His party members called the arrest just before national elections a “political conspiracy” by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Kejriwal was granted bail last month by the Supreme Court to campaign in the Indian general elections. According to the stipulations of his bail he must…