Author: DW

Skip next section EU leaders respond to Kremlin’s ‘state of war’ comment03/22/2024March 22, 2024EU leaders respond to Kremlin’s ‘state of war’ commentEU leaders have hit back after Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated Friday that Russia is in “a state of war.”  European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Russia’s comments show that it betrayed its own population after denying that it was at war for the past two years. Meanwhile, European Council President Charles Michel said Russia’s statement shows the need for the EU to strengthen its own defense industries. “We must be lucid and we must tell to our…

Russia and China vetoed a United States-backed draft resolution at the UN Security Council calling for a cease-fire in Gaza as part of a hostage deal. The proposed resolution called for “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza to protect civilians and enable humanitarian aid to be delivered to the Palestinian enclave. Moscow accused Washington of a “hypocritical spectacle” that does not pressure Israel. Algeria also voted against the resolution, with Guyana abstaining and the remaining 11 countries of the 15-member Security Council voting in favor. Russia not interested in assisting diplomatically, US says The United States…

Concerns have emerged over how some members of Nigeria’s “Community Watch Corps” groups operate. The vigilante groups were introduced to complement the efforts of conventional security agencies to fight criminals, known locally as bandits, who raid and loot villages, kill residents and burn houses to the ground. But many Nigerians now accuse the the vigilante security groups of extrajudicial killings and torture while interrogating the suspected bandits. Tit-for-tat killings According to some residents in the states where the groups operate — including Nigeria’s northern states of Katsina, Zamfara and Sokoto — the groups are getting out of hand. Nigeria’s impoverished Zamfara state first introduced a…

Israel said on Friday it had seized 800 hectares (1,977 acres) of land in the occupied West Bank. Israel’s extreme-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared “state lands” in the northern Jordan Valley, near the Israeli settlement of Yafit. Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories are illegal under international law. “While there are those in Israel and the world who seek to undermine our right over the Judea and Samaria area and the country in general, we are promoting settlement through hard work and in a strategic manner all over the country,” Smotrich said on Friday, using a contentious name for the occupied…

Russian hackers have targeted several German political parties to steal data, German news magazine Der Spiegel reported on Friday. The magazine cited an analysis from the US security firm Mandiant, which is subsidiary of Google owner Alphabet, as well as an alert by German security authorities. What did the cyber attack consist of? Mandiant said that the APT29 hacking group, which is also known as “Cozy Bear,” tried to trick “key German political figures” into opening an email that contained a fake invitation to a dinner event hosted by the opposition conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party. Mandiant analysts said that the…

As Russia reels from a devastating attack at a concert hall, Kyiv is worried Vladimir Putin will exploit the bloodshed to escalate his war in Ukraine regardless of who is to blame.On Friday night, the extremist Islamist militant group Islamic State claimed responsibility for the mass shooting that left at least 40 people dead and dozens more wounded in a Moscow suburb. But the Kremlin has yet formally to accuse any organisation, nation or individual. IS has on occasion in the past falsely claimed credit for attacks, though the brutality unleashed at the concert hall matched Islamic State tactics.Follow latest…

Shareholders of Digital World Acquisition Corp, a publicly traded shell company, voted Friday to approve a merger with former US President Donald Trump’s media company. This means that the Trump Media & Technology Group, whose main product is the social networking site Truth Social, will soon begin trading on the US tech-heavy Nasdaq stock exchange. Trump would own the largest chunk of the combined company: nearly 79 million shares. That, multiplied by Digital World’s Thursday closing price of $42.81, would put Trump’s total stake at more than $3 billion (€2.8 billion).  But Trump won’t be able to cash in Friday’s…

For the activists who have been running the communal kitchen in Sudan’s regional capital El Fasher for the past year, the United Nation’s latest warning of “catastrophic hunger” felt as if someone had finally found the right words for the brutality of the situation. For months the activists have not been able to raise funds or obtain food. They were simply left to watch their stockpiles diminish. “Eventually, on February 15, we ran out of food and have not been able to feed anyone in our communal kitchen since then,” one of the founders told DW. They asked that their name be withheld…

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned Israel that an offensive on Rafah, the southern Gazan city sheltering more than one million people, would risk “further isolating” it.Speaking after a US-sponsored ceasefire resolution was vetoed on Friday by Russia and China at the UN Security Council, Mr Blinken said he had taken part in “candid conversations” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A military ground operation in Rafah “risks killing more civilians,” the US secretary of state said as he departed Tel Aviv, his final stop in his sixth urgent trip to the region since the Israel-Hamas war started…

Several gunmen fired shots Friday at the Crocus City Hall, a huge concert hall on the western edge of the Russian capital, Moscow, local news agencies reported. What do we know about the incident? The state news agency RIA Novosti said at least three people dressed in combat fatigues fired weapons, leaving some people dead and wounded. Meanwhile, Interfax reported up to five people were involved in the attack. “Unknown persons opened fire at the Crocus City Hall. The evacuation of people is under way,” the emergency services told TASS news agency. The fire has engulfed a third of the building, and…