Author: DW

Former Dutch international footballer and once a target of Manchester United, Quincy Promes, has been sentenced to six years in prison in absentia for drug trafficking. Amsterdam District Court ruled that the 32-year-old – who plays in the Russian Premier League for Spartak Moscow – was involved in the import and export of hundreds of kilograms of cocaine in 2020. Promes, who lives in Moscow, did not attend his trial in the Dutch capital and is not expected to return to the Netherlands in the foreseeable future.Prosecutors had asked judges to sentence him to nine years for his involvement in…

Exhausted after months on the move, Palestinians in Rafah face impossible decisions once again. More and more people have crammed into Gaza’s southernmost city, which itself is squeezed against the heavily fortified border with Egypt, and wonder where they can go as the threat of an Israeli ground offensive in the city weighs on their minds. “We are afraid for our lives,” Iman Abu Musa told DW in a WhatsApp message. The 22-year-old recently fled to Rafah from neighboring Khan Yunis, where heavy ground fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas militants has sent thousands of people south and west in search…

At least one person has died and several people were wounded Wednesday after shots were fired at the end of the Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory parade in Kansas City, Missouri, according to local officials. Fire Department Battalion Chief Michael Hopkins said up to 15 people were injured in the shooting. Of the injured, three were in critical condition, five were in serious condition and one person had non-life-threatening injuries, he said. “Shots were fired west of Union Station near the garage and multiple people were struck,” Kansas City police said on X. “We took two armed people into custody for more investigation.” Fans were urged to exit the…

The top Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, was one of the main planners of the 7 October attack on Israel but did not expect the consequences to become “this dangerous”, a friend has told Sky News.Esmat Mansour said last year’s cross-border raid was supposed to be a strategic operation designed to lift the Israeli siege on the territory, release Sinwar’s friends from prison, and make him a “leader of the Palestinian people”. But the calculations “didn’t go as planned”, the reaction of the Israelis was “uncontrolled, without any justification”, and “now we have this result”, he explained.”He [Sinwar] didn’t…

A French appeals court on Wednesday reduced the jail term for former President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was convicted of illegal campaign funding while running for reelection in 2012. In 2021, a lower court had sentenced Sarkozy to one year in prison in the case, but but the sentence was suspended while he appealed. Now, the Paris appeals court said the ex-president should serve only six months in jail, with another six months suspended. The sentence can be served through alternative means, such as wearing an electronic bracelet, without going to jail. Sarkozy’s lawyer Vincent Desry immediately said the ex-president would challenge the appeal verdict at…

Myanmar’s military government has introduced mandatory military service for all young men and women as it struggles to contain an anti-junta insurgency in various parts of the country.  All men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 will have to serve for up to two years, while specialists such as doctors aged up to 45 can be called on for up to three years, state media reported over the weekend. On Tuesday, the military said the compulsory service would begin in April. The army’s information office said in a statement that 5,000 people each month would be…

A top UN official has warned the deteriorating situation in Gaza is the worst humanitarian crisis he has ever seen in his 50-year career.Speaking to Sky News’ Yalda Hakim, Martin Griffiths said it was because “people can’t escape. They’re blocked in, they’re not able to run out of Gaza”. “I think this is the worst [crisis] in my 50 years of experience.”The UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs said it was worse than “awful scenes” he witnessed during the civil war in Syria a few years ago and worse than the “horrors” that were the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia in the…

German auto supplier Continental announced plans on Wednesday to cut 7,150 jobs worldwide by 2025. The automotive sector has been forced to retool as consumer demand shifts to electric vehicles. Continental, which produces tires and other car parts, said 1,750 jobs would be slashed from research and development, while the other 5,400 job cuts were previously announced as part of a cost-cutting program. The company’s automotive chief, Philipp von Hirschheydt, said the move would allow the company to “focus our resources even more on future technologies for software-defined vehicles.” “We are aware of the impact on our employees and will…

What is known about the wanted list? It is an official database that can be found on the Russian Interior Ministry website. It contains the names of individuals suspected of having evaded Russian justice. The Interior Ministry does not say according to which criteria the database is organized. There are currently 96,752 names on the list. Which non-Russian nationals are named? The database lists the names of hundreds of foreigners, including Ukrainian soldiers and fighters serving in Ukraine’s International Legion. It also lists 160 politicians, lawmakers and civil servants from Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Ukraine. Among the most high-ranking figures…

The exchange of fire over Israel’s northern border with Lebanon is some of the most serious yet – but the situation remains fundamentally the same. Hezbollah’s Iranian patrons do not want the militia to escalate the conflict to an all-out war. And its commanders want to avoid one too. Israel may be weighing a bigger war but has not decided to do so yet.Ever since the Hamas atrocities of 7 October, Hezbollah and Israel have been duelling over the border.Follow live: Israel launches wave of attacks on Lebanon Hezbollah feels it must show solidarity with the Palestinians of Gaza but not…