Author: DW

Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated his determination to carry out a ground invasion of Rafah, despite growing pressure from Western allies.The Israeli prime minister rebuked Joe Biden, saying he made it “supremely clear” to the US president he intended to go ahead with an assault on the southern Gaza city where he believes Hamas’s remaining battalions are hiding. But US secretary of state Antony Blinken has said he hopes to secure a ceasefire agreement and the release of hostages in Gaza in his upcoming trip to the Middle East. Image: Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly threatened an invasion of Rafah. Pic: Reuters…

It might seem strange for a practicing Muslim to say, but Kholoud Khardoum, a 53-year-old living in Iraq, is clear. “Not all of Ramadan is necessarily about religion,” the Baghdad-based writer said. “It’s also about the atmosphere and the tradition of people coming together.” Iraq is a Muslim-majority country, but in areas where different religious communities live together, you’ll often find non-Muslims participating in celebrations around the month-long Muslim holiday of Ramadan, she told DW. In particular, the “iftar,” the sunset meal where friends and family come together to break the sunrise-to-sunset fast, can be a community occasion. “Sometimes Christian people…

Brazil’s Federal Police on Tuesday indicted former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro for falsifying his COVID-19 vaccination records.  Police: Bolsonaro wanted to ‘cheat current health restrictions’ The indictment said that Bolsonaro tampered with a public health database to make it look as if he and several others in his circle were vaccinated.   Police detective Fabio Alvarez Shor signed off on the indictment, saying Bolsonaro and several others wanted to use fake COVID vaccination records to “cheat current health restrictions.”  “The investigation found several false insertions between November 2021 and December 2022, and also many actions of using fraudulent documents,” Shor explained.  Despite…

A baby giraffe at a zoo in Florida has died after suffering a broken neck.The young female was found dead by staff on Saturday morning, said Ron Magill, a spokesman for Zoo Miami. But it is not clear what led to the animal breaking her neck, as it happened overnight and away from the view of workers at the facility.Mr Magill said they “can only speculate that something startled the animal and caused it to run into a fence, resulting in the fatal injury”.None of the other giraffes have shown signs of trauma but zoo staff “continue to closely monitor…

Russian and Belarusian athletes will not be allowed to participate in the parade of nations at the opening ceremony of the Paris Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said. The athletes, who will be competing in the Games under a neutral flag, “will not participate in the parade of delegations and teams during the opening ceremony since they are individual athletes,” IOC director James McCloud said after an IOC executive board meeting on Tuesday in Lausanne, Switzerland.  Russian and Belarusian athletes who qualify for the Games will do so without their flags and anthems as a result of Russia’s full-scale…

On March 18, the results of an independent, international UN fact-finding mission on Iran’s response to a nationwide protest movement were introduced to the UN Human Rights Council during its regular session in Geneva. In the over 300-page report, UN investigators spelled out how Iran’s government carried out a brutal campaign of oppression against the protests, which chairperson Sara Hossain said in some cases amounted to crimes against humanity. In November 2022, two months after the death of 22-year-old Jina Mahsa Amini sparked an Iran-wide protest movement, the UN Human Rights Council established the fact-finding mission on the “deteriorating situation…

Hong Kong’s parliament has unanimously passed a new security law which grants the government more power to quash dissent.The new legislation threatens sentences of up to life in prison for offences including treason and insurrection, as well as stringent penalties for other offences such as sabotage, external interference and theft of state secrets. Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, which is packed with Beijing loyalists, says the new law aims to protect national security.However, the move is widely seen as the latest step in a sweeping political crackdown following large-scale 2019 street protests that challenged China’s rule over the semi-autonomous territory.Critics fear…

Just when communities were starting to understand the lethal effects of fentanyl and oxycodone abuse, yet another painkiller opioid has emerged from the pharmaceutical archives as a deadly street drug. Commonly known as nitazenes, 2-Benzyl Benzimidazole opioids are said to be up to 500 times more potent than heroin, making people more prone to addiction. Drug and health agencies in the UK, elsewhere in Europe, and the US are reporting a rise in the number of overdoses and fatalities linked to nitazenes. There are indications that while authorities clamp down on fentanyl, and heroin cultivation in Afghanistan slows under the Taliban, nitazenes…

German authorities in the city of Potsdam on Tuesday said they had obtained an entry ban against an “EU citizen.” What do we know so far?   Several German news outlets reported that the ban was imposed on Austrian far-right activist Martin Sellner, with Sellner also confirming the news on his X account. Sellner said in his social media post that he was no longer allowed to enter German territory for three years, otherwise he will pushed back and punished.   The 35-year-old holds hardline views on migration, and has also expressed racist and antisemitic beliefs. Sellner was reportedly the key speaker at…

Bricklayer Rafiq Masih and his four children have been living in fear since August 2021, when his wife was taken away by police in Islamabad, for allegedlycommitting blasphemy. Having lived in the Pakistani capital for many years, the Christian minority family had to move to the adjoining Rawalpindi city to live a low-profile life for their own safety. Shagufta Kiran, 48, a nurse, was moved into detention on the charge of making derogatory remarks about Islam in a WhatsApp group. “During a discussion, some Muslim members of the WhatsApp group found Shagufta’s words about the teachings of Islam blasphemous, made screenshots and…