Author: DW

Skip next section Macron set to host Ukraine conference02/26/2024February 26, 2024Macron set to host Ukraine conferenceMacron (l) wants to bolster support for Ukraine under its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy (r)Image: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFPFrench President Emmanuel Macron is to host a conference in Paris at which European leaders will discuss their support of Ukraine. The gathering comes amid fears that help from the US could falter. Macron is likely to also use the conference to plead for more European autonomy in security matters, something he championed even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine was launched two years ago. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and…

An Australian pilot was kidnapped from a telecommunications site in Papua New Guinea’s remote highlands on Monday, alongside two local workers. The incident occurred near Papua New Guinea’s Mount Sisa in Hela province. Police later announced the trio were released unharmed. What do we know about the kidnapping? Papua New Guinea police commissioner David Manning said that the three were kidnapped at gunpoint by an armed group. Their release, safe and unharmed, followed several hours of negotiations, he added. Papua New Guinea police had initially been cleared to use lethal force against the kidnappers. The restive highlands have in recent…

Alexei Navalny once hit out at the “corrupt officials” living in London who allegedly help Vladimir Putin’s regime stash dirty money, Sky News can reveal.In a never-before-seen interview acquired by Sky News, the late Russian opposition leader spoke about his hope for a better future for his country – and the risks he knew he was taking. “I am an optimist,” he said. “I hope that this 20 years of Putin is not set in stone. We weren’t doomed to it, we weren’t meant to go in that direction.”He made the comments in an interview four years before his death…

The city of Avdiivka now constitutes a Russian trophy in a state of ruin.The logistics hub – or what’s left of it – was exhibited by uniformed Russian officials after months of intensive fighting on the front line. It is their latest conquest in the invasion of Ukraine and the latest setback for their hard-pressed neighbour.It was with reports of further Russian advances in villages surrounding Avdiivka that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksyy convened an all-day conference along with his ministers and generals, in a smart Kyiv hotel.The gathering may have been designed as a show of confidence – or reassurance…

Tuvalu’s former Attorney-General Feleti Teo was named prime minister of the tiny South Pacific nation Monday. Teo was the only nominee after the previous prime minister, Kausea Natano, lost his seat at the January 26 election. “It is the first time in our history that a prime minister has been nominated unopposed,” said Tuvaluan lawmaker Simon Kofe. The selection of a new prime minister had been delayed since the January vote because bad weather prevented MPs from outlying islands from reaching the capital. Tuvalu is made up of tiny atolls in the Pacific Ocean and is home to around 11,000 people. Rising…

Tens of thousands of women – many of them Western – and once married to Islamic State men are still being held in two closed tented camps in the war-torn country nearly five years after the fall of the extremist terror groupShamima Begum – who ran away to join IS whilst still a teenager at school in east London – is not the only woman to be effectively disowned and abandoned by her home country. We found dozens of families who once lived in the so-called IS Caliphate urging their governments to rescue them from the barricaded camps manned by…

02/25/2024February 25, 2024Ukrainian defense minister: 50% of Western military aid arrives lateHalf of Western military aid to Kyiv is delivered late, Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said on Sunday. “At the moment, commitment does not constitute delivery,” Umerov said during a forum dedicated to the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion. “Fifty percent of commitments are not delivered on time,” he added, saying this helped Russia. Ukraine, which is struggling with an ammunition shortage, has for months said that Western aid is slow to reach the country. The issue is likely to worsen due to the blocking of further American aid…

After the fall of communism, Russia faced a choice between growing authoritarianism and kleptocracy or more freedom, democracy and ultimately prosperity.Alexei Navalny embodied that alternative to the dark years of Vladimir Putin. He represented a future many there yearn for – a vision dealt a body blow by his death. The interview acquired by Sky News underlines what Mr Navalny offered. It reminds us of what he was, a new kind of politician for Russia, young charismatic, forward looking and engaging.”I am an optimist,” he tells the camera in the interview four years ago, “I hope that this 20 years…

Anna Leisten is cheerful, young and radical. That’s how she appears in the many images she’s posted on Instagram, at least. She’s one of the best-known faces of Germany’s Junge Alternative (JA), or Young Alternative, the youth wing of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Her social media profile says she can be anything “from a braid-wearing sweetie pie to a forged-iron soldier.” The 23-year-old from Brandenburg plants her political messages between harmless-looking images. One, for instance, shows her lifting her hand to show the white power hand sign adopted by the radical right and neo-Nazis. It’s the same sign right-wing extremist and Christchurch gunman…

An 84-year-old Austrian man who traveled to Afghanistan last year and was arrested there was released by the country’s Taliban rulers, the Austrian government said Sunday.  Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer thanked the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and his team for their “strong support” in releasing the individual. “It is only due to our trusted collaboration that this Austrian citizen will be able to return home to his daughter and grandchildren,” Nehammer said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. The Austrian Foreign Ministry said the released man arrived in the capital Doha from Afghanistan on Sunday afternoon. If necessary,…