Author: DW

Volkswagn will invest €2.5 billion ($2.7 billion) to expand its operations in China, it announced on Thursday. The move comes as the German auto giant tries to compete with local manufacturers in order to prevent a sales slide in its most important market. Volkswagen will use the multi-billion-euro investment to expand its production and innovation hub in Hefei, in the eastern province of Anhui. “This additional investment in the (Hefei) site underlines our ambition to quickly expand our local innovative strength,” said Volkswagen’s China chief Ralf Brandstätter.Why big automakers are losing ChinaTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to…

Israel’s allies have ramped up the pressure in recent weeks to allow more aid into Gaza to avert a worsening humanitarian crisis. But few have so far imposed sanctions on the Middle Eastern country boycotted Israeli products. DW looks at what measures a handful of countries and activist movements have taken. Turkey raises the stakes In its first significant measure against Israel since the war began, Turkey on Tuesday announced curbs on a wide range of exports to Israel until a cease-fire is declared in Gaza. The measure restricts sales of products from 54 categories, including steel, fertilizer, aviation fuel, bricks and construction equipment. Turkey’s trade ministry said…

The Russian defense ministry sent military personnel and trainers to Niger on Wednesday to install systems and train soldiers, Nigerien state TV RTN said. The channel showed people and goods being unloaded from a military cargo plane, with images showing Russian Ilyushin-76 aircraft.  The dispatch of Russian personnel to the African nation is part of a recent agreement between Niger’s military junta leader Abdourahamane Tchiani and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two countries are trying to increase cooperation. “We are here to train the Nigerien army … (and) to develop military cooperation between Russia and Niger,” a trainer dressed in…

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Russia launched a fresh wave of attacks across Ukraine overnight, including in Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, Kharkiv and Lviv, Ukrainian authorities said. “Overnight, Russia fired more than 40 missiles and 40 drones at Ukraine,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media. “Some missiles and ‘Shahed’ drones were successfully shot down. Unfortunately, only a part of them.” There were no immediate reports of casualties. The head of the Kyiv administration, Ruslan Kravchenko, said an air raid alert lasted for five hours in the city.  “Tonight the area was massively attacked with kamikaze drones and missiles,” he said. The strikes completely destroyed the…

A UN Security Council committee has failed to agree on a common response to a renewed bid by the State of Palestine for full United Nations membership. Malta’s ambassador to the UN, Vanessa Frazier, who currently chairs the committee, said after a meeting in New York on Thursday that two-thirds of the members were in favor of the application while five were opposed. It is considered unlikely that the committee will then recommend that the Security Council vote on the application. However, a resolution to that effect could be introduced at any time by any member state of the Security…

The UK should consider sending troops to Ukraine to give training and other support to Ukrainian forces in the war with Russia – though away from the frontline, former armed forces minister James Heappey has said.He also told Sky News that Britain needs to be better prepared for war at a time of growing threats, including by reinvigorating a large “strategic reserve” force of thousands of veterans who could be required to serve again in a national crisis. In a wide-ranging interview, the outgoing MP for Wells in Somerset repeated a call for an immediate increase in defence spending to…

The new migration pact comprises several intertwined laws and is primarily intended to reduce the number of new arrivals, speed up asylum procedures and establish centers for doing this at the European Union’s external borders. According to the EU’s statistics agency Eurostat, the number of asylum applications has risen steadily in recent years, reaching 1.14 million in 2023. Around 4 million refugees from Ukraine have been accommodated in the bloc since 2022. How will asylum procedures be implemented at the external borders? In the future, asylum-seekers and refugees will be clearly identified within seven days of arrival in the EU by land, sea or air.…

The United States on Thursday urged countries to give more attention to the conflict in Sudan. It also called for the international community to press Iran not to fuel the war amid reports it was providing the Sudanese military with arms. Sudan has been facing a humanitarian crisis since war broke out between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on April 15, 2023. What did US officials say about the situation in Sudan? “As communities barrel toward famine, as cholera and measles spread, as violence continues to claim countless lives, the world has largely remained silent,” said the…

A memoir written by Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny before his death will be published later this year.Mr Navalny began to write his biography Patriot in Germany – where he was recovering from nerve agent poisoning, which he blamed on the Kremlin, according to publisher Alfred A Knopf. He then continued to write the book while in and out of prison in Russia after his arrest in 2021.The publisher has labelled it as the 47-year-old’s “final letter to the world”.His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said in a statement on Thursday that the book was not only a testament to her late…