Author: DW

A court in Moscow on Tuesday ordered Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter Evan Gershkovich to remain in pre-trial detention for another three months. The 32-year-old US citizen was arrested in March 2023 on charges of espionage while on a reporting trip, which both he and his employer deny. Friday marks the first anniversary since Gershkovich’s arrest in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg. Charges ‘categorically untrue’ — US ambassador US Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy attended court proceedings and reiterated that “the accusations against Evan are categorically untrue.” “They are not a different interpretation of circumstances. They are fiction,” Tracy told reporters…

Issa Fayed is the owner of a car repair center in Haifa, a city on Israel’s Mediterranean coast. He’s also an Arab Israeli, or, as he describes himself, a Palestinian living in Israel.  As Israeli strikes on Gaza began in the aftermath of the October 7 Hamas attacks, Fayed posted a video of himself on his Instagram account saying that Palestinian residents of Israel had no freedom of speech.  “I said that the Palestinian and Arab views matter, too, and this will still remain the case if they [Israeli authorities] arrest us,” he told DW.  As a result of the video, Israeli…

There is an urgency to the work of the aid team in the West Bank as the war in Gaza becomes even more grim.The team pack boxes with staples – flour, oil, rice and lentils – to be delivered to those in need. “It is in an economic catastrophe at the moment,” Anton Goodman tells me.Anton is an Israeli Jewish human rights activist working in the West Bank alongside Palestinians to deliver food aid at a time when more and more families are facing difficulties. Image: Anton Goodman “When we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who were working…

Brazilian police on Monday launched an investigation into former President Jair Bolsonaro’s two-night stay at the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia. The far-right politician faces multiple criminal investigations. Brazilian police would not have been able to arrest him while he was staying at a foreign embassy. Bolsonaro has good relations with Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, who leads the right-wing nationalist Fidesz party. Bolsonaro called Orban his “brother” druing a 2022 visit to Hungary. What do we know about the investigation? The probe comes after a report from The New York Times showed security footage from within the Hungarian embassy in…

A massive portion of the steel arched Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, collapsed into the Patapsco River early Tuesday morning after a cargo ship struck it, state authorities reported.  “Key Bridge collapse due to ship strike. Active scene,” Maryland Transportation Authority said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. Transport authorities added that traffic was being detoured on the I-695 highway that crosses the bridge.  The 1.6-mile (2.57 kilometer) bridge, which was completed in 1977, spans the Patapsco River in southern Baltimore on the US east coast.  Videos shared on social media showed multiple vehicles falling into the river after the collision. …

A major bridge has collapsed in the US city of Baltimore after it was hit by a cargo ship.Footage shows a large section of the 1.6 mile-long Francis Scott Key Bridge falling into the water following the collision at around 1.30am local time. Baltimore’s fire service said emergency teams are searching for at least seven people believed to have fallen into the water.Baltimore bridge latest: Workers ‘possibly in the water’Chief Kevin Cartwright, director of communications for the Baltimore City Fire Department, said the main focus right now is “trying to rescue and recover these people”. Image: Pic: Streamtime Live He…

Moscow’s Basmanny district court on Monday ordered the pre-trial detention for two months of all four suspects in Friday’s deadly concert hall attack. Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised to punish those behind the attack at the Crocus City Hall, in which the death toll has now risen to at least 137. What happened in the courtroom? The four main suspects between the ages of 19 and 32, and identified in Russian media as Tajik nationals, were charged with committing a deadly group terrorist attack. They face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.  The suspects began to appear in court shortly…

Turn into Syria Street, a wide boulevard in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, and you’ll find yourself driving past buildings pockmarked with bullet holes and rubbish that has sat uncollected for weeks. But you’ll also pass items of furniture neatly set out and arranged for sale, practically inviting you to take a seat right there on the street as if in an open-air living room. The residents here all know each other. Many of them grew up in the area and have lived here all their lives. In the early 1900s, goods were transported north from Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, along this bustling…

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in Cairo on Monday for talks on the increasingly fraught humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. Baerbock has urged both Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas to make concessions in ongoing negotiations in Qatar. After Cairo, Baerbock was scheduled to fly on to Israel for her sixth visit to the country since the Hamas-led October 7 terror attacks. A meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has been scheduled for Tuesday. Germany’s foreign minister in Egypt for Gaza talksTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a…

Dani Alves has paid €1m in bail to be released from prison while appealing a rape conviction, a Spanish court has said.The former Barcelona footballer paid the £860,000 sum and handed over his Brazilian and Spanish passports after prosecutors had argued he was a flight risk. Last month, Alves was found guilty of raping a woman in a nightclub in December 2022 and sentenced to four and a half years in prison.Alves denied wrongdoing during the trial, having said: “I am not that kind of man.”The 40-year-old has spent the last 14 months in the Brians II prison located 45…