Author: DW

Gaza’s population, displaced and devastated by Israel’s continuing offensive against the narrow strip, is on the brink of famine.International efforts to get aid in have faced challenges, so much so that President Joe Biden announced on Thursday night that the US would build a temporary port on Gaza’s coast.Follow latest: Aid ship ‘heading to Gaza today’ The president insisted there would be “no US boots on the ground” but there has been little detail so far on how the ambitious project will work.Sky News spoke to some experts to try and answer some of the key questions about the proposed…

Lying on the hard desert ground, a lion is reduced to a pile of fur and bones – drained of all the strength and power we associate with the ferocious predator. So emaciated, he is barely even recognisable.He gently squirms as a towel is placed over his eyes by a rescue worker. There is no bite or fight left in him. Captive animals are rarely spared from the horrors of conflict – even victimising the beasts we traditionally fear and respect.Warning: This article includes images of animals some may find distressing. Staff at Sudan’s first and only animal shelter fled…

Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock welcomed her British counterpart David Cameron in Berlin on Thursday to discuss the war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war. The “Strategic Dialogue” was established to discuss cooperation on foreign and security policy between the two countries. The meeting however comes at an awkward time for Berlin; days after Russian media published an intercepted online call between senior German military officials about Ukraine. During the call, the officials discussed alleged British operations on the ground in Ukraine. Russian leak to overshadow discussions  During the second UK-Germany “Strategic Dialogue,” the top priority was to discuss further military assistance for Ukraine and ways to increase…

A US court on Friday found former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez guilty of colluding with drug cartels and facilitating the smuggling of hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States. After a trial that lasted two weeks, the 12-member jury declared a unanimous verdict convicting Hernandez. What are the charges against Hernandez? Hernandez was found guilty in each of the three charges against him, that include: plotting to import cocaine, illegal use and carrying of machine guns, and possessing machine guns as part of a “cocaine-importation conspiracy.” He could face sentences of up to life imprisonment, according to US prosecutors…

With centuries of history, ancient archaeological sites, Islamic art and untouched landscapes, Afghanistan is attracting tourists – despite the Taliban regime and the UK government’s “do not travel” warnings.In the 1960s and 1970s, the country formed part of the overland “hippy trail” route across Asia and welcomed hundreds of thousands of Western tourists. But as its complicated modern history unfolded, the steady stream of travellers stopped. The UK Foreign Office currently advises against all travel to Afghanistan, highlighting its “volatile” security situation and an “ongoing and high threat of terrorist attacks”. But some adventurous tourists aren’t letting this stop them.Joan…

Just a week after they converged on Warsaw for a massive demonstration, tens of thousands of farmers and their supporters were back in Warsaw again on Wednesday, bringing the Polish capital to a standstill for several hours. This time, they were joined by the NSZZ Solidarnosc union, which is closely linked to the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, which was voted out of office last October. This added a new, political edge to the protests and was a clear dig at the new center-left government of Donald Tusk, which has been in power for less than three months.The police…

The campaigning is over, the voting is closed – as Hollywood’s biggest night approaches, there’s little more for the nominees to do than show up looking fabulous and wait to see who has won what.Unlike recent years, in which front runners have been little-seen indie films the academy has chosen to shine a spotlight on, this year sees box office behemoth Oppenheimer in poll position to take the most prizes. But if we know anything about the Oscars it’s that it can be a ceremony of surprises, so let’s take a look at the main categories and which nominees might…

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Thursday that it had thwarted a planned “terrorist attack” on a Moscow synagogue, Russian news agencies reported. The FSB said that a so-called “Islamic State” (IS) cell, based in Kaluga, situated southwest of Moscow, had planned on attacking Jewish worshippers. Suspected IS members killed during arrest “While being arrested, the terrorists put up armed resistance to the Russian FSB officers, and as a result were neutralized by return fire,” the security service was quoted by the TASS news agency as saying in a statement. “Firearms, ammunition, as well as components for the manufacture of an…

With Israel still refusing to open up more aid routes into Gaza, and the situation on the ground deteriorating rapidly, the US and Western partners have lost patience and are looking at options to bypass Israel. The US proposal to build a pier off Gaza is an imperfect, risky option but would be one way of delivering the large quantities of aid needed. It would likely take weeks to establish though, and is therefore only a medium-term solution to an immediate crisis.Middle East latest: Aid ship ‘heading to Gaza today’Lord Cameron’s call for Israel to open Ashdod port makes sense, but…

Three dead seamen, one sunken ship and a looming environmental catastrophe  — Yemen’s Houthis have scaled up their attacks on civilian shipping in the Red Sea. According to the U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, the freighter Rubymar, which sank earlier in March after it was attacked by the Houthi militia in mid-February, has already caused an oil spill of some 29 kilometers in length. (18 miles). So far, there is no final assessment of the environmental damage the attacks are causing. But it it’s possible that more than 7,000 barrels of oil and 22,000 tonnes of ammonium phosphate fertilizer on board the Rubymar will end…