Author: DW

Following a probe led by the Czech Republic, EU leaders agreed this week to launch a task force to counter Russia’s efforts to interfere in June’s European elections. The decision came two weeks after the Czech Republic’s Security Information Service (BIS) reported that it had uncovered a network used by Russia to funnel cash to politicians across the European Union. Populists and nationalists in Germany, France, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Hungary were reportedly paid to push pro-Russian narratives with the goal of influencing the upcoming elections and weakening the EU’s support for Ukraine in its defense against Moscow’s aggression…

Throughout his career Benjamin Netanyahu has been a generally cautious politician, either deferring decisions or taking the least incendiary options.There’s a school of thought in Israel that he had no choice but to act after the Iranian barrage of missiles and drones. To not do anything would have flown in the face of decades of Israeli security policy.How then to deal with the strike and balance different international and domestic pressures?Middle East latest: Worshippers in Tehran chant ‘death to Israel’ after strike Certainly, allies like the US were suggesting that after the successful interceptions and defence of the nation he…

Skip next section Russia likely to have lost 100 combat aircraft — UK intelligence04/20/2024April 20, 2024Russia likely to have lost 100 combat aircraft — UK intelligenceThe UK’s Ministry of Defence (MOD) on Saturday said that a Russian strategic bomber was likely to have been shot down by Ukraine’s air force. “This is the first instance of a strategic bomber being shot down by Ukrainian Air Defence Systems,” the MOD said in a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.  The Russian Air Force lost a Tupolev Tu-22M3 supersonic heavy bomber on Friday and claimed the crash was likely caused by technical…

The US House of Representatives will on Saturday hold a long-awaited and crucial vote on a major aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. Voting on the foreign aid and arms bill, valued at $95 billion (€89 billion), is expected to begin at 1 p.m. local time (1700 GMT/UTC). If the vote in the House is successful, the package will then head to the Democrat-controlled Senate, where passage in the coming days is all but assured. US President Joe Biden has promised to sign off on it immediately. Why has the aid package stalled? Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has faced an uphill battle from hardline…

Iran has said Israeli involvement in Friday’s attack is still to be established and dismissed the drones used as like children’s toys.Foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian claimed they took off from within Iran and only flew a few hundred metres before being shot down.Israel hasn’t commented but is widely believed to be behind the strike targeting an airbase and nuclear site near Isfahan.Middle East latest: Worshippers in Tehran chant ‘death to Israel’The US told a G7 meeting that Israel had told it about the attack “at the last minute”.Israel had been weighing up how to respond to Iran’s unprecedented drone and…

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo on Friday called on the European Union to help his country stop an influx of migrants via Russia. The Nordic nation closed its eastern border in mid-December after nearly 1,000 migrants had arrived without a visa through its frontier with Russia since August. Most of them were from the Middle East or Africa. The two neighbors share a 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) border and Helsinki has accused the Kremlin of weaponizing migration in response to Finland’s accession to NATO, triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen traveled to the Finnish-Russia border at Lappeenranta in the Arctic with…

The relationship between the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani government has been growing more and more strained since the fall of Kabul in August 2021. Many experts attribute the current tensions to the increase in cross-border terrorism originating from Afghanistan. But some of Islamabad’s recent actions have also embittered the Taliban regime — last year, Pakistan enforced trade restrictions on its neighboring country, expelled 500,000 undocumented Afghan migrants , and implemented stricter visa policies at border crossings. Last month, Pakistan launched rare airstrikes inside Afghanistan, targeting the  suspected hideouts of Pakistani militant groups, killing eight people, and prompting Afghan forces to…

A man who set himself on fire outside the New York courthouse where former US President Donald Trump is on trial has died.Maxwell Azzarello was “declared deceased by hospital staff”, police told NBC News in a phone call early on Saturday, local time.No specific time of death was given. Image: Maxwell Azzarello pictured on Thursday protesting outside the Manhattan court where Donald Trump’s trial is taking place. Pic: Getty Mr Azzarello, in his mid-30s, from St Augustine in Florida, threw conspiracy theory pamphlets in the air before setting himself alight in a designated protest area for pro and anti-Trump demonstrators…

Located in the Himalayas, India’s union territory of Ladakh is a natural paradise with mountain peaks reaching the clouds, lush grasslands, and thousands of glaciers. For more than a month, demonstrators in the city of Leh have braved sub-zero temperatures to demand more autonomy from the Indian government to help them preserve their fragile ecosystem by giving them more control over land and agricultural policy. The high-altitude region is vulnerable to the effects of climate change, which has altered weather patterns and resulted in melting glaciers, droughts and flooding. The protesters say statehood within India would allow them more autonomy to respond to these…

Gang violence led to 1,660 deaths and 850 injuries in the first three months of 2024 in Haiti, a UN report said on Friday. That’s a more than 50% increase on the previous quarter’s figures, when the BINUH (or United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti) reported 1,104 deaths and 532 injuries. Almost four in every five of the deaths or injuries (79%) took place in the lawless capital Port-au-Prince, as authorities struggle to retain control. The report warned that recent months had also been characterized by more frequent and more organized gang attacks targeting government or law enforcement facilities.  It noted the…