Author: DW

World leaders and critics of Vladimir Putin are in uproar after Alexei Navalny’s death.The 47-year-old lawyer and opposition leader died after falling unwell during a walk at the “Polar Wolf” penal colony on Friday, Russia’s prison service has said. Follow latest:Putin blamed for Navalny’s deathWe asked Sky’s experts about what Mr Navalny’s death means for Russia, and how likely it was that he was assassinated.Here’s what they had to say… Image: Alexei Navalny makes a heart to his wife Yulia during a hearing in Moscow in 2021. Pic: AP ‘Sudden death won’t play well for Putin’Diana Magnay, Sky News’s Moscow…

Calls to ban Israel from international sport because of the Israel-Hamas war have grown ever louder in recent weeks, with a new petition gathering significant backing, a letter in the European Parliament and a row between Israeli and Irish basketballers posing serious questions for major sporting events and organizations. The petition, by ‘The Democracy in Europe Movement 2025’, calls on Israel to be suspended from sports and has gained over 70,000 signatures, as of February 16. And, with the Paris Olympics starting in July and Israel’s male footballers facing playoffs in March to qualify for June’s European Championship in Germany, sporting administrators…

Skip next section Germany and Ukraine sign bilateral security agreement02/16/2024February 16, 2024Germany and Ukraine sign bilateral security agreementGerman Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday signed a bilateral security agreement worth €1.13 billion ($1.22 billion) in Berlin. Germany’s defense ministry said the so-called “Munich Package” focuses on air defense and artillery and includes provisions of 120,000 rounds of 122-millimeter caliber ammunition and an additional 100 IRIS-T SLS missiles this year.  Scholz called the agreement an “historic” step. “Germany will continue to support Ukraine in the face of the Russian war of aggression,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. German…

A court in Cambodia on Friday sentenced two Taiwanese men to two years imprisonment for staging a kidnapping from a seaside resort and posting video of it online. Chen Neng-chuan, who goes by the handle “Goodnight Chicken” and Lu Tsu-hsien known as “Anow,” were arrested after posting fake videos on Facebook of themselves being beaten and detained by security guards, according to the Preah Sihanouk provincial court. Streaming from a ‘scam park’ Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) reported that the coastal city of Sihanoukville — in southwestern Cambodia — gained notoriety for harboring numerous scam compounds that enticed people — including some…

Alexei Navalny lived and died fighting against Vladimir Putin’s regime and the corruption at its heart.Barred in 2018 from running in elections, he remained Mr Putin’s most powerful political opponent. He was the one man capable of bringing tens of thousands on to the streets calling for a Russia without Mr Putin – and the one man Russia’s president famously refused to mention by name.Follow live: Putin critic ‘felt unwell after walk’He was stubborn, sarcastic and exceptionally charismatic – a born populist with a sense of humour which appealed especially to the young. His YouTube investigations into Mr Putin’s cronies,…

Should cannabis be legal? Several governments, such as those of Canada and South Africa and several US state governments, have greenlighted recreational use of the substance in recent years. Now, Germany’s Bundestag is set to vote on a new cannabis law. If it passes, which is almost assured considering that the representatives of all three government parties are in favor of it, the growth and consumption of limited amounts of the drug will become legal for adults as of April 1.  Still, in many parts of the world, the possession and consumption of cannabis is prohibited and often severely punished. For years,…

Prabowo Subianto, a former-general-turned-defense minister, is set to become Indonesia’s next president after taking a huge lead in unofficial results and declaring victory in Wednesday’s general election. This is the third attempt for 72-year-old Subianto at the presidency, having lost to current President Joko Widodo twice, in 2014 and 2019. Widodo, popularly known as “Jokowi,” is leaving office as a hugely popular leader with an 80% approval rating after serving the maximum two terms. Subianto joined Jokowi’s government as defense minister in 2019 and has since tried to emphasize that any bitter rivalry with the president is a thing of the past. He…

The two traditionally dominant players of Pakistani civilian politics declared this week that they planned to form a coalition government, ending the deadlock that followed last week’s parliamentary election, where no party won a clear majority.   The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of former three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said it was joining forces with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) as well as other smaller parties.  Together, the parties would have enough seats to command a majority in the 265-member parliament. The PML-N has nominated former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Nawaz Sharif’s younger brother, to lead the new government. The newly declared coalition echoes…

Greece has legalised same-sex marriage – becoming the first Orthodox Christian-majority country to do so.The landmark bill, drafted by prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ centre-right government, passed on Thursday night with a cross-party majority of 176–76 votes. It also allows same-sex couples to legally adopt children, but will not allow gay men to acquire biological children through surrogate mothers in Greece.Mr Mitsotakis described the passing of the bill as a “milestone for human rights” – one which showed Greece as a “progressive and democratic country, passionately committed to European values”.”People who have been invisible will finally be made visible around us.…

The case of Kilimanjaro The Chagga people have lived on the slopes Africa’s most famous mountain for centuries. They call the summit Kibo. But for much of modern history, Tanzanian children were taught that Kilimanjaro was discovered in 1848 by a German missionary, Johannes Rebmann. In fact, German geographer Hans Meyer renamed Kibo Kaiser Wilhelm Peak when he reached the summit in 1889. The cultural importance of Kilimanjaro to the local Chagga was completely ignored. Yet the European explorers were very aware of the symbolism attached to renaming landmarks: That they were the new masters of Africa, and they were…