Author: DW

The atmosphere across Lebanon is heated following this week’s killing of Pascal Suleiman, a local politician belonging to the Christian nationalist Lebanese Forces party. On Sunday, Suleiman was kidnapped and killed near Byblos, some 38 kilometers north of Lebanon’s capital Beirut. On Monday, his body was found across the border in Syria. Lebanese officials allege that the slaying was part of a car theft, but Suleiman’s party suspects political motives. Some sections of the population, however, have started blaming the country’s large contingent of Syrian refugees. A myriad of footage on social media shows angry crowds yelling at Syrians to leave…

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo announced a probe on Friday into suspected Russian interference in the upcoming European Union elections. De Croo said investigators found that Russian groups are meddling in the elections to promote pro-Russia candidates, in an attempt to weaken European support for Ukraine.  “Belgian intelligence services have confirmed the existence of pro-Russian interference networks with activities in several European countries and also here in Belgium,” De Croo told reporters. “The objective is to help elect more pro-Russian candidates to the European Parliament and reinforce a certain pro-Russian narrative in that institution,” he continued. “The goal is very clear — weakened European support for Ukraine…

A producer of the hit animation Bluey has reassured parents and kids “it’s not the end” after worried fans were left confused by a cryptic conclusion to the latest episode.Bluey, the animated children’s TV show which features a playful family of animated dogs, left fans concerned the popular Australian series could be coming to an end. The latest episode of the current series showed a ‘For Sale’ sign outside the Heelers’ much-loved home in a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland.It was also the first episode in all three series to end without any music. Image: Bandit reading a bedtime story to…

The fire was still raging at the Notre Dame Cathedral on April 15, 2019, when French President Emmanuel Macron vowed to renovate and reconstruct the medieval monument within five years. Since then, work on the Gothic Episcopal church has been in full swing and is apparently on schedule. “We are meeting deadlines and budget,” Philippe Jost, the head of reconstruction efforts, told a French Senate committee in late March. Jost took over the position after his predecessor, ex-General Jean-Louis Georgelin, died while hiking in August 2023. The cathedral is officially scheduled to reopen on December 8, 2024. Though it will not be ready in time for the Summer…

On May 5, 2017, two days before his runoff against the nationalist Marine Le Pen, emails from the campaign of Emmanuel Macron, then competing in his first election for the French presidency, were leaked online in what his team called “a massive and coordinated attack to undermine democracy.” Not only that, but fabricated emails were mixed in with genuine ones to mislead voters. “At that moment, we understood how much of a threat disinformation is,” said Marc-Antoine Brillant, the head of Viginum, a 50-member department established in 2021 to battle foreign digital interference. “After the 2017 election, people across various…

The leader of Mali’s military junta, Colonel Assimi Goita, has long been accused of not being genuinely interested in a “return to democracy.” Goita on Thursday issued a decree suspending all political activities in the restive West African nation. The ban applies “until further notice and across the entire country” and affects “political parties and associations with a political character.” Government spokesperson Abdoulaye Maiga justified the move in a statement read on state television on Wednesday night, citing the need to maintain “public order.” Media silenced Also on Thursday, Mali’s high authority for communication ordered all media — whether television stations, radio…

A property tycoon has been sentenced to death in Vietnam after the biggest fraud trial in the country’s history.Truong My Lan was sentenced on Thursday by a court in Ho Chi Minh City after being found guilty of embezzlement, bribery and violations of banking rules following a month-long trial, state media reported. The 67-year-old chair of the company Van Thinh Phat (VTP) was accused of fraud amounting to $12.5bn – nearly 3% of the country’s GDP in 2022.Lan and her accomplices were charged with illegally controlling the Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB) between 2012 and 2022 to siphon off…

The discovery of a small room in an ancient Roman villa near Pompeii has shed light on what life was like for those living under slavery. The bedroom was found at the Villa Civita Giuliana which lies a few hundred meters north of the walls of Pompeii which was destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago. What was discovered? Archaeologists on Sunday said that two beds — only one of which has a mattress —along with two small cupboards and a number of ceramic containers and pots were discovered in the room which is thought…

A bill to liberalize Poland’s abortion law, one of the strictest in the European Union, passed its first hurdle in parliament on Friday. The three coalition partners that make up the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk  had submitted four separate bills for discussion amid wide divisions on the issue.  Lawmakers voted to send all four on to be analyzed by a special commission that will work on lifting a near-total abortion ban.  Under a 2020 ruling by Poland’s Constitutional Court, abortion is permissible after rape or incest or in cases when the pregnant woman’s life is in danger. However, it remains illegal if a fetus is…

Few observers would describe the last week as being a positive one for South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. South Africa’s Electoral Court ruled on Tuesday that Ramaphosa’s rival, former president Jacob Zuma, can run for office in the country’s upcoming general election — overturning an earlier decision that had barred him from the vote.  But the electoral commission said Friday that it had appealed the ruling to the country’s highest judicial authority, the Constitutional Court.  Zuma, who used to lead the ruling African National Congress (ANC), now fronts the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK)  — named after the ANC’s former military wing. The…