Author: DW

This is the type of message one might come across on Ukrainian Telegram channels:  “The Armed Forces of Ukraine are recruiting homeless people.” “Ukrainians are going to surrender Kharkiv.” “Ukrainian border guards were allowed to open fire on those trying to flee Ukraine.” These messages, monitored by the Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation, are distributed by allegedly pro-Russian Telegram channels apparently to sow panic and disinformation about Ukraine’s military affairs and political establishment. The speed and anonymity of Telegram have heightened the debate over whether to block the platform in Ukraine. This issue has reached political circles, with discussions now…

Many South Koreans, including President Yoon Suk-yeol, cast their ballots on Friday on the first of two days of early voting for next week’s parliamentary elections. More than 3.5 million people, or some 8% of eligible voters, had voted as of 1 p.m., according to the National Election Commission — the highest turnout in the time period since early voting was introduced in 2013. Surveys have shown that the April 10 election will be a close-run affair, with Yoon’s People Power Party (PPP) seeking to win a majority in the 300-seat assembly. The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) currently holds a a 167-seat majority, enabling…

A dog missing from California has been reunited with its owners after turning up almost nine months later – and more than 2,000 miles away from the family home.Terrier mix Mishka went missing from San Diego in mid-July last year and her owners’ social media pleas for information failed to deliver any leads. Fast forward nearly nine months and just before Easter, authorities in suburban Detroit, Michigan, responded to a call about a stray dog.Police in Harper Woods picked the pooch up and contacted animal welfare group The Grosse Pointe Animal Adoption Society.They soon discovered three-year-old Mishka had been chipped…

One of the accomplices in the deadly Christmas market attack in Strasbourg was handed 30 years in prison, a French court ruled Thursday.  The 42-year-old accomplice from the Ivory Coast, Audrey M., went to trial in February along with three others over their roles assisting in the attack. He was the main defendant in the trial, and is accused of helping the perpetrator of the attack with a firearm.   The 29-year-old attacker, Cherif Chekatt, was shot dead by police after a massive manhunt. He killed five people and wounded 11 others when he opened fire on the open-air market. What did the court rule?  The court…

Yet another horrific event in the Gaza Strip: Seven members of the international aid organization World Central Kitchen were killed in an Israeli attack. The aid workers were trying to reduce the suffering of the estimated 2.4 million people in the Gaza Strip. The shocking news, which drew international condemnation, has again highlighted the difficulty of getting international aid, including aid from Germany, to those trapped in the war zone. For weeks, German aid groups have increasingly voiced their concern that the help they are able to provide is extremely limited. Gerda Hasselfeldt, president of the German Red Cross (DRK), is not prone…

During the first months of the war in Gaza, deaths were counted through a network of computers connecting morgues across the territory. It was a system that, in the years beforehand, had won the trust of human rights groups, the UN and the World Health Organisation.But amid repeated Israeli attacks on hospitals and chronic fuel shortages, this system has now effectively collapsed.Of the eight major hospitals responsible for collating morgue data, just three are still providing information to the health ministry.As a result, the morgue monitoring system is now only capturing a small fraction of deaths across the territory. Datawrapper…

Skip next section US is stronger with NATO, Stoltenberg tells DW04/04/2024April 4, 2024US is stronger with NATO, Stoltenberg tells DWNATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has rejected suggestions that some lawmakers in the United States are turning their backs to the miliary alliance. “The US is stronger with NATO than without NATO. There’s a strong bipartisan support for NATO in in the United States,” Stoltenberg said in an interview with DW’s Alexandra von Nahmen in Brussels. “And we have to remember that the criticism from former President Donald Trump and also from others in the United States has not been mainly against…

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati denied any wrongdoing after two anti-corruption organizations filed a complaint against him and his family alleging financial fraud including money laundering. The complaint was submitted in France this week by anti-corruption watchdog Sherpa and the Collective of Victims of Fraudulent and Criminal Practices in Lebanon. Sherpa’s lawyer William Bourdon called for an investigation despite any legal protections  granted to Mikati through his office. “That’s the kind of mechanical consequences of being a billionaire politician — you consider your position to be a kind of shelter against prosecution,” Bourdon told the Reuters news agency. Echoes of Riad Salameh’s scandal…

On death row, there’s the man you meet and the man you Google. When I walked into East Block, San Quentin, there was a genial wave from inside the condemned cell of David Carpenter. His internet history has him as the serial rapist and murderer known as “The Trailside Killer”. Raynard Cummings was on good form, mimicking my Scottish accent as he stood the height of the cell door that separated us.”I don’t think lions and tigers should be locked up like this,” he told me, reverting to Californian drawl. Search his name and you find it’s a view formed in…

Far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) politician Petr Bystron has pushed back on allegations that he took money from an online Russian disinformation network, according to a letter seen Thursday by German news outlets Tagesschau, Welt and others. Bystron has been accused of taking payments from the now-defunct Russian web portal “Voice of Europe” (VoE), which was based in Prague.     “At no time have I received any payment or cryptocurrencies from an employees of VoE (or any Russian),” Bystron said in the letter to AfD leadership. He complained of a “defamation campaign” regarding the matter against politicians from six European political parties. …