Author: DW

Ukrainian forces have launched “co-ordinated strikes” against an airbase in southern Russia that is used to unleash glide bomb attacks on Ukraine, a military source has said.The operation, which took place overnight on Saturday, had “significantly reduced” Moscow’s ability to use glide bombs against frontline Ukrainian positions, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Ukrainian military source claimed this would “seriously impact” a Russian attempt to advance on the battleground town of Chasiv Yar, in the east of Ukraine.War latest: Ukraine ‘destroys Russian Black Sea minesweeper’The strikes targeted the Kushchyovskaya airbase in Krasnodar Krai, which is…

Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s five-year term as Ukraine’s president formally ends on May 20. An election would normally have been held in late March, but the parliament postponed the vote as the country is still at war and under martial law. But a major question remains for Ukrainians: who might succeed Zelenskyy once he leaves office? In early 2024, few politicians and commentators openly pondered who could, or should, follow Zelenskyy. At the end of February, when Zelenskyy looked back on the past two years of fighting with Russia, the president dismissed any talk questioning his legitimacy as a “hostile narrative.” Speaking with journalists, Zelenskyy said…

US President Joe Biden told the graduating class at Morehouse College that he was listening to their voices amid ongoing protests over the conflict in Gaza. “I support peaceful nonviolent protest,” he told students, some who wore kaffiyeh scarves around their shoulders on top of their black graduation robes. “Your voices should be heard, and I promise you I hear them.” “It’s a humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” Biden said at the higher education facility in Atlanta, Georgia. “That’s why I’ve called for an immediate cease-fire.” Biden made the visit after weeks of protests and demonstrations at a series of higher education facilities in the US,…

Islamic State has claimed responsibility after three Spanish tourists were killed when gunmen opened fire in Afghanistan’s central Bamiyan province.A fourth person was also killed, and a further four foreign nationals and three Afghans were injured in the attack in the mountainous region, the Taliban’s interior ministry has said. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack on its Telegram channel.This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.Please refresh the page for the fullest version.You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app. You can also follow…

Women and children were among 28 people killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza on Sunday, officials have said.The territory’s Hamas-run health ministry said at least 20 people died in the bombing of a house in Nuseirat – a refugee camp in central Gaza. The dead included eight women and four children, including a two-year-old girl called Sabreen, according to records at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.A separate strike on a street in Nuseirat killed another five people, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent emergency service.It came as heavy fighting continued in northern Gaza, which has been largely isolated by Israeli troops…

The free trade deal between the European Union and the South American trade bloc Mercosur would be the world’s largest such agreement, affecting a total of 780 million people. But in late March, French President Emmanuel Macron not only described it as “a very bad agreement,” he even suggested it should be “left behind” and called for “a new agreement.” Macron likely doesn’t want to give right-wing populist parties like Marine Le Pen’s National Rally any free ammunition for their campaign ahead of the EU elections in June. And he wouldn’t want to get French farmers any more annoyed; they’ve already brought the…

South Africa has enjoyed 30 years of democracy after apartheid, and, for the first time, the stakes are significantly high in the general election scheduled for May 29. Several polls suggest that the African National Congress (ANC) party of President Cyril Ramaphosa could lose its majority after three decades in power. However, Steven Gruzd, head of the African Governance and Diplomacy Programme at the South African Institute of International Affairs, believes the ANC can still secure a slim majority. “My personal feeling is that somehow the ANC is going to get just over 50%, even though it is deeply unpopular,” Gruzd told DW. According to Gruzd, the…

Officials in Slovakia are investigating whether the attacker who shot the prime minister was not a “lone wolf”.The interior minister Matus Sutaj Estok issued the update on Sunday, after the suspect was previously believed to be a “lone wolf”. Robert Fico’s condition is no longer life-threatening but is still very serious, his team said on Sunday.Deputy prime minister Robert Kalinak issued the update four days after the assassination attempt on the populist leader.Speaking to reporters outside the Banska Bystrica hospital, where Mr Fico is being treated, he said: “The worst that we feared had passed, at least for the time…

Voters in the Dominican Republic head to the polls Sunday to choose the next president and members of parliament. With widespread support for his tough stance on migration from troubled neighbor Haiti, President Luis Abinader is poised for a comfortable re-election. Voting officially began at 7:00 a.m. local time (1100 GMT) and will continue until 5:00 p.m., with the first results expected a few hours later. Opinion polls show Abinader with 60% of voter support against 25% for his closest rival, Leonel Fernandez, a 70-year-old three-time ex-president. If Abinader exceeds 50% of the vote, he will win another term without…

A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi made a “hard landing” on Sunday, Iran’s Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said. “The esteemed president and company were on their way back aboard some helicopters and one of the helicopters was forced to make a hard landing due to the bad weather and fog,” the minister said in comments aired on state TV The incident took place in the city of Jolfa in Iran’s northwestern province of East Azarbaijan, Vahidi added, following earlier reports on state media. Jolfa is located about 600 kilometers (375 miles) northwest of the Iranian capital, Tehran, on the border with Azerbaijan.…