Author: DW

The number of asylum applications to the European Union has risen over the past two years. While there were just under 1 million in 2022, the European Union Agency for Asylum has predicted that this mark could now have hit the highest number since 2015, the year in which a especially large number of people came to Europe and former German Chancellor Angela Merkel coined the slogan: “We can do this!” Of those seeking protection, more than 350,000 entered the EU irregularly (without permission) in the first 11 months of 2023, according to EU border protection agency Frontex. But irregular migration only accounts…

Donald Trump has appealed to the US Supreme Court to enforce his participation in the primary election in the state of Colorado, the former president’s campaign team announced on Wednesday. In December, the 77-year-old appealed a 4-3 ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court that became the first time ever that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment was used to bar a presidential contender. The court found that Trump’s role in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol disqualified him under the previously unused clause. Likely Republican nomination The frontrunner for the Republican 2024 nomination, Trump is pushing back against the Colorado court’s decision that disqualified him under…

A coastguard aircraft that collided with a passenger plane at Tokyo’s Haneda airport had not been cleared for take-off when the crash took place, authorities have said.The small jet, with a pilot and five passengers on board, was preparing to fly to the city of Niigata to deliver aid to those affected by a recent earthquake when it collided with a landing Japan Airlines (JAL) Airbus A350. Tower transcripts suggest the JAL passenger flight had been given permission to land. Image: An aerial view of the burnt Japan Coast Guard aircraft at Haneda International Airport All 379 people on JAL…

Japanese rescuers searched for survivors of the New Year’s Day earthquake on Wednesday ahead of predicted freezing temperatures and heavy rains that threatened to bring about landslides. The devastating quake rattled Ishikawa prefecture on the west coast of the main island of Honshu, killing at least 62 individuals and destroying hundreds of buildings and sparking fires. The destruction isolated the remote area, and rescuers have since struggled to find survivors. What is the scale of the destruction? The regional government said it expected the death toll to climb, with poor weather conditions and damaged roads complicating rescue efforts. Some 300 people have been injured,…

Thousands of junior doctors in England have begun a six-day strike, set to be the longest in the 75-year history of the National Health Service (NHS). The labor action started at 7:00 a.m. local time (0700 GMT) on Wednesday and is due to end at the same time on January 9. Why are the doctors striking? The strike comes amid a long-running pay dispute with the UK government and was announced by the British Medical Association (BMA) in December after the last breakdown of talks. Negotiations collapsed after a pay rise offer of 8-10% was deemed insufficient by the BMA, which is seeking a 35%…

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged hundreds of prisoners of war in the biggest single release of captives since the conflict began in February 2022.Ukrainian authorities said 230 Ukrainian prisoners of war returned home in the first exchange in almost five months on Wednesday. Russia’s defence ministry said 248 Russian servicemen have been freed on the same day under the deal sponsored by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has thanked the “warriors on the frontline who take the occupiers prisoner and replenish our exchange fund”.He added: “The more Russians we take prisoner, the more effective negotiations on exchanges…

A knife attack on Tuesday targeting Lee Jae-myung, the head of South Korea’s main opposition party, has been condemned as an assault on democracy less than 100 days ahead of the 2024 legislative election. Analysts have also suggested the attack, which took place as Lee addressed reporters at a construction site for an airport close to the city of Busan, is a sign of worsening political polarization and an increasing willingness to use smear tactics and violence to further political aims.  The alleged assailant, identified by police as a 66-year-old man, was overpowered immediately after the attack and is being…

On New Year’s Day, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 on the Richter scale shook the west coast of Japan, triggering a tsunami. In its wake, numerous videos purporting to show live footage of the destruction have been circulating on social media. A satellite image shows damaged homes along the coastline following the January 1 earthquake in Ukai, JapanImage: Maxar Technologies/Handout via REUTERS And while many videos do actually show the extent of the natural disaster, others are either old or not even recorded in Japan. Here are three examples gathered by DW’s fact checking team: Does this video…

Investigators behind the scenes are trying to piece together how two planes managed to collide and burst into flames – killing five people – at Tokyo’s Haneda airport.Captured in dramatic footage from the scene, a Japan Airlines aircraft burst into flames and moved along the runway in a burning inferno following a collision with a coastguard plane.Details have now begun to emerge with air traffic transcripts suggesting the coastguard plane had not been cleared for take-off when the crash took place.Japan has already been hit by tragedy following an earthquake on New Year’s Day, with dozens dead and warnings of…

Three weeks after the change of power in Poland, the public media remains the most prominent political dispute between the center-left government of Donald Tusk and Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s outgoing national conservative Law and Justice party (PiS). President Andrzej Duda, an independent close to the PiS, placed this topic at the center of his New Year’s address. “For the first time in free Poland since 1989, there was an attempt to take over the public media by force. The broadcasting signal of some TV channels was turned off and informational programs were no longer broadcast,” Duda said. Poland’s President Andrzej Duda…