Author: DW

The European Hospital, in southern Gaza, is a dangerous place to be. The facility is the only remaining hospital east of the city of Rafah and an Israeli military operation has come perilously close to its doors.It was a hazardous time then, for three British medics to begin a short placement, arriving at the hospital just a few days before the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) began its campaign.Now they are unable to leave. Image: A patient is treated at the European Hospital. Pic: Fajr Scientific We managed to speak to one of these doctors – an orthopaedic and peripheral nerve surgeon…

After long discussion, Germany’s main opposition party, the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), this week voted to put a gradual return to mandatory military service back on its agenda. That means that if the CDU returns to power, it would try to introduce legislation making it mandatory for young people to either serve in the military or the social sector for one year. Germany used to have a system like that, but axed it in 2011. The reason for the CDU’s about-face is concerns about Russia and a lack of personnel in the Bundeswehr. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, of the governing center-left Social Democrats (SPD),…

It’s estimated that some 1,000 people gathered at Hamburg’s popular street Steindamm late April, following a call to protests by an organization called Muslim Interactive (MI). Some demonstrators chanted “God is great,” and held up signs that read “caliphate is the solution,” and “Germany = a dictatorship of values.” Public outcry was quick to follow, with many calling for the organization to be banned. A second demonstration is this weekend. Necla Kelek is a sociologist and head of the Secular Islam Initiative, which is based in Hamburg. She said that she, like many others, had been surprised by the sudden demonstration…

Israel has called on residents from more areas of Rafah in the Gaza Strip to evacuate and head to the “expanded humanitarian area” as it prepares to ramp up its military assault.Despite heavy US pressure, Israel has said it will proceed with an assault on the southern city, where more than 1.4 million people have taken refuge from the fighting – around half of them children – and Israeli forces say Hamas militants are dug in. Tensions over the gathering offensive have led President Joe Biden to warn the US would stop supplying Israel with some weapons if it presses…

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday that it would lodge an official complaint with the German government after six people threatened to take over a building that once served as a Russian consulate in the eastern city of Leipzig. It said two staff members from the Russian Embassy had called police after the six intruders climbed over the fence of the building and displayed banners expressing anti-Russia sentiments from the balcony while threatening to take control of the property. Police in the city said six German nationals were currently being investigated on suspicion of trespassing. The incident comes after Germany this…

The announcement that in 2025 India will overtake Japan in nominal gross domestic product in dollar terms has shocked Tokyo, which had until 2010 been the undisputed second-largest economy in the world but is now on the brink of slipping to fifth place. In estimates released in late April, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) indicated that India’s nominal GDP will reach $4.34 trillion (€4.03 trillion) in 2025, surpassing Japan’s $4.31 trillion. The timing of India’s surge into fourth place in the world comes one year earlier than the IMF’s last estimate, due in large part to the weakness of the Japanese…

Israel has probably broken international law – that’s the conclusion of a US State Department report that is both damning yet cautiously equivocal too.The report, released late last night, is highly critical of Israel, but will also be seen as intentionally non-committal by its critics. Eagerly anticipated – it was due on Wednesday – the report was written by the US State Department for the US Congress as part of an audit determining how US-supplied weapons overseas are being used.It concludes that it is “reasonable to assess” that some of Israel’s actions in Gaza have been “inconsistent with its international…

“What is it that scares our societies the most — but we think about it every 40 minutes?,” presenter Maria Elayan asks at the beginning of the video. There’s a drum roll, then the answer: “Sex. You’re surprised, right?” The character that Elayan plays in the video, who is also called Maria, is open and outspoken. The character is a woman from the Middle East and North African region who is courageous, has her own opinions and is not afraid to go her own way. “Why are our societies so afraid of desire? Especially women’s desire? And what is desire?”…

Some of the scenes in the film are almost unbearable to watch. One of them features abstract sketches that detail the execution of a man in the custody of an elite unit of the Bangladeshi army. The man is an opposition politician. The film is “Inside Bangladesh’s Death Squad” by the investigative journalists Christian Caurla, Naomi Conrad, Arafatul Islam, and Birgitta Schülke. The documentary, which was produced by DW Investigations in collaboration with DW Bengali and Netra News, a Sweden-based investigative and public interest journalism platform focusing on Bangladesh, is the first to provide evidence of targeted killings and torture by an elite unit in…

The strongest solar storm in more than two decades struck Earth on Friday, triggering spectacular auroras worldwide. According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center, the first of several coronal mass ejections (CME) occurred shortly after 1600 GMT. It was later upgraded to an “extreme” geomagnetic storm. It was the first such storm since the Halloween storms of October 2003, which caused blackouts in Sweden and damaged power infrastructure in South Africa. The green and blue lights — which are expected to continue for a few days — were seen from Britain to Tasmania, with…