Author: DW

Britain will spend at least 4.7 billion pounds ($6 billion, €5.5 billion) on implementing a new approach to import goods after exiting the EU customs market in 2020, the UK government’s public spending watchdog said on Monday. The UK voted to leave the European Union in 2016 but remained in the bloc’s single market and customs union until 2021. In 2021, the UK withdrew from the EU customs union and a new EU-UK Trade Cooperation Agreement (TCA) went into effect. The European Parliament said in a report that the trading of goods between the parties had become “burdensome” since Brexit and trade volumes had…

The Dominican Republic’s incumbent president, Luis Abinader, has a commanding lead in the country’s presidential elections, according to preliminary results Monday.  With around 38% of votes counted, Abinader held 59.24% of the vote, followed by three-time former President Leonel Fernandez with 26.97%, according to preliminary data from the nation’s central electoral board. If Abinader exceeds 50% of the vote, he will win another term without the need for a runoff vote.  In a post on the social media platform X. Fernandez said he called Abinader to concede the election. Voters cast ballots  Voters in the Dominican Republic went to the polls Sunday to choose the next president…

A helicopter carrying Iran’s president crashed during bad weather on Sunday.But who is Ebrahim Raisi – a leader who faces sanctions from the US and other nations over his involvement in the mass execution of prisoners in 1988. The president, 63, who was travelling alongside the foreign minister and two other key Iranian figures when their helicopter crashed, had been travelling across the far northwest of Iran following a visit to Azerbaijan.Follow live: Rescuers search for president after helicopter crashMr Raisi is a hardliner and former head of the judiciary who some have suggested could one day replace Supreme Leader…

As Iran’s Cabinet convenes for an emergency meeting after a helicopter accident involving President Ebrahim Raisi, speculation over the consequences of the helicopter’s “hard landing” is rife across the Middle East. Search and rescue teams continue to scour a fog-covered mountainous area after the helicopter with Raisi on board went missing in what state media is calling an accident. Fears grow for the 63-year-old ultraconservative after contact was lost with the aircraft carrying him as well as Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and others in East Azerbaijan province. But exactly who is Raisi, who came to power in 2021, replacing the moderate outgoing leader Hassan Rouhani, and what might happen…

Ebrahim Raisi has been one of Iran’s hardest of hardliners, a fanatical and absolute believer in the Iranian revolution and its mission.If he has died on a mountainside in the north of the country, as looks increasingly likely, it will be a major moment for the country and the region. It will remove from the Middle East one of its toughest most uncompromising players.Follow live: Rescuers search for president after helicopter crashA man who launched the first direct attack on Israel in his country’s history and a hardliner on whose watch hundreds of Iranians have been killed in the brutal…

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…