Author: DW

The movie “Anora” won the Palme d’Or, the Cannes Film Festival’s top prize, on Saturday. The dark, funny and touching drama about a young exotic dancer, who becomes involved with a Russian oligarch’s son, took the plaudits after overcoming 21 competitors up for the top prize, including entries by established directors such as Francis Ford Coppola and David Cronenberg. The film by Sean Baker continues a streak of sex worker-focused films by the American director, including the 2021 Cannes entry “Red Rocket” and 2017’s “The Florida Project” starring Willem Dafoe. This win is dedicated “to all sex workers past, present and future,”…

In the final campaign rally for the ruling African National Congress (ANC), the 112-year-old political party and liberation movement turned long-time government appealed to voters and the nation for faith and patience.This is the most consequential election in South Africa’s democratic history since the first free and inclusive vote to end Apartheid in 1994. Now, the party that led the country to freedom is at risk of losing its majority in the face of growing discontent around soaring unemployment, crime and economic inequality.This rally was not only a call to vote but a call to remember. A rainbow nation display…

05/25/2024May 25, 2024Germany delivers another IRIS-T air defense system to UkraineGermany’s Defense Ministry on Friday confirmed that another IRIS-T air defense system had been delivered to Ukraine. “We have once again delivered a combined IRIS-T SLM and IRIS-T SLS fire unit to Ukraine,” said German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. Pistorius spoke of a “highly modern and well-proven medium and short-range air defense system, manufactured directly by German industry.” Together with the recently delivered Patriot system, Germany is thus “strengthening Ukraine’s air defense in its defensive battle against Russia’s brutal war of aggression, which violates international law,” Pistorius said.  Each IRIS-T…

People in the Idlib region of northwestern Syriaare taking to the streets again in protests triggered by the death of a prisoner in jail, apparently through torture at the hands of security forces of the Islamist militia Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). The prisoner’s family long tried in vain to obtain information about his condition. “When we finally found out in February that he had been tortured to death, we had to take to the streets. We couldn’t remain silent,” Hamed T. explained. Hamed T., whose name has been changed, has been protesting against the Assad regime since 2011, when he was 17. In Idlib, people…

Professional golfer Grayson Murray has died aged 30, the PGA Tour has said. The American, a two-time tour winner who was number 58 in the world ranking, withdrew late in his second round at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas, on Friday, citing an illness. “We were devastated to learn – and are heartbroken to share – that PGA Tour player Grayson Murray passed away this morning. I am at a loss for words,” said PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan.”The PGA Tour is a family, and when you lose a member of your family, you are never the…

A fire broke out Saturday at a family entertainment venue in Gujarat State in western India, leaving at least 20 people dead, police said. The blaze occurred in the city of Rajkot. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on X that the “fire tragedy in Rajkot saddened us all.” The fire broke out in the afternoon and is now under control.  Images showed firefighters removing debris with collapsed tin roof structures nearby. Focus on saving lives, says Rajkot mayor “Our focus is on rescue operations and saving lives. We will ensure strict action is taken against the people who are responsible for…

Finance ministers from theG7 group of wealthy democracies on Saturday cited “progress” but no breakthrough in talks on how to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine as it continues to battle invading Russian forces. The meeting of the G7 ministers in the northern Italian city of Stresa focused mainly on the question of how to find more funds for Ukraine as Russia presses on with a new offensive in the Kharkiv region in the third year of its unprovoked invasion. The G7 and its allies froze some $300 billion (€276 billion) of Russian assets shortly after Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of its…

At least two people have been killed after a crowded DIY store in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv was hit by Russian strikes, regional officials say.Two guided bombs hit the hypermarket, wounding many more and triggering a huge blaze that fire crews were battling to contain, Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said via the Telegram messaging app. Up to 200 people could have been in the store, which is in a residential area, at the time of the strikes, which killed at least two people and left at least 24 injured, according to officials. Image: Firefighters tackle the blaze. Pic:…

In a rejoinder issued five days after the joint release of the investigation by DW, Netra News, and Süddeutsche Zeitung, Bangladesh’s Defense Ministry called DW’s documentary “false and fallacious”. It was a “misleading portrayal of Bangladesh Army personnel in UN Peacekeeping Missions,” the army wrote. Earlier this week, DW, Netra News and Süddeutsche Zeitung revealed that officers from an elite force in Bangladesh – the Rapid Action Battalion – that commits torture, murder, and abductions, are being sent on UN peacekeeping missions. DW and its partners found more than 100 officers, 40 of them deployed in the last five years. The Defense Ministry’s rejoinder…

The fear is there, day and night, said Mamadou from Chad, who asked that DW not use his full name for fear of reprisals, recounting what happened to him earlier this month after he failed to reach the Italian island of Lampedusa with the help of human traffickers. “The Tunisian Coast Guard officers took our cell phones and our money, then they drove us to the Libyan border where they stripped us and left us alone,” he told DW from his hiding place: An olive grove near Tunisia’s port city of Sfax. He said he had walked around 240 kilometers (ca. 150 miles) through the desert to get…