Author: DW

It would be fair to say Ivory Coast shouldn’t even be in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final. But, two weeks after a shock 4-0 loss to Equatorial Guinea that seemed to all but spell the end of their tournament, the Elephants, as they are nicknamed, are in their first AFCON final in nearly a decade. The hosts’ semifinal win over the Democratic Republic of Congo saw the same fans who destroyed buses outside the stadium in anger at the four-goal drubbing celebrate with joy, determined to turn night into day in Ivory Coast. “They thought we were dead,” a fan said…

Aleema Khan believes her brother inspired a revolution in Pakistan from behind bars on 8 February – delivered by young people and women who came out against the odds.At her home in Lahore she said the focus is now on winning back those seats they believe have been unfairly taken from them through alleged vote rigging. She said lawyers had visited Imran Khan and that he “sent out a very clear instruction that you have to go out, protest outside the returning offices and recover your seats. The ones that have been stolen.”The government insists the elections were both fair…

Few would have expected Xabi Alonso’s Leverkusen to be playing for the Bundesliga title and yet here they are, with a very real chance of winning it all. But how does a team handle being in an unexpected title race? Robert Huth played an integral part of Leicester City’s remarkable Premier League victory in 2016. For the German, the key was balancing his natural human desire to imagine the future and the discipline to return to the situation at hand. “It’s important that you allow yourself to go to that sort of place, you know, like envision yourself lifting the trophy,…

Hungary’s president has been forced to resign after she pardoned a man convicted of concealing child sex abuse at a state-run children’s home.Katalin Novak, 46, issued the presidential pardon in April 2023, but it has only come to light in recent days.After protests across the country, Ms Novak said on Saturday: “I issued a pardon that caused bewilderment and unrest for many people. I made a mistake.”Ms Novak is a key ally of Hungary’s right-wing prime minister Viktor Orban.She was the first woman to become president when she assumed the role in 2022 – and the youngest person in the…

Senegal was due to elect a new head of state on February 25. The incumbent president, Macky Sall, was not on the ballot: after two terms in office, he is no longer eligible to stand. However, on February 3, just one day before the start of the election campaign, Sall announced that the vote would be delayed. The parliament has since voted by a majority to approve the rescheduling of the election for December 15, but some members of the opposition have lodged a complaint with the Constitutional Council. Protesters took to the streets in response to the announcement. Police used…

Before flying off to the US where he met President Joe Biden in Washington on Friday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the war in Ukraine would be a key issue. “The question now is how Europe, but also the US, can consolidate support for Ukraine,” he said, adding that there was currently not enough help coming from the US and Europe. The EU recently approved a €50-billion (ca. $54 billion) support package for Ukraine, in an attempt to send a signal to the US. European Council President Charles Michel said afterwards the deal showed that the EU was “taking leadership and…

A six-year-old girl who was recorded begging rescuers to save her after an attack in Gaza has been found dead with five of her relatives and two ambulance workers who went to save her, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said.Hind Rajab took the phone from her teenage cousin, Layan Hamadeh, after she was killed in a strike on the Tel al Hawa suburb of Gaza City earlier this month, the PRCS said. Believed to be the only survivor, audio was released of Hind pleading with rescuers saying: “Come and get me… I’m so scared, please come.”Rafah bracing for bloodbath;…

Hungary’s President Katalin Novak announced on national television on Saturday that she was resigning, as she faced mounting pressure for issuing a presidential pardon to a man convicted as an accomplice for helping to cover up a sex abuse case at a children’s home.  “I made a mistake,” Novak said. “Today is the last day that I address you as a president.”  Novak, 46, is a close ally of Prime Minister Viktor Orban and a member of his party, Fidesz. She returned from an official visit to Qatar at short notice to make the announcement. Demonstrators gathered in Budapest last night calling…

China’s capital Beijing became the latest city to call off an Argentina friendly on Saturday, as the fallout from star player Lionel Messi sitting out a highly publicized game in Hong Kong last week with injury intensifies.  Beijing’s football association made the announcement, halting a friendly between Argentina and Ivory Coast, a day after Hangzhou sports authorities also canceled a friendly between Argentina and Nigeria.  “Beijing does not plan, for the moment, to organize the match in which Lionel Messi was to participate,” the Beijing Football Association said in a statement to local media.  Messi also spent most of the match in Japan…

Thirty people have been charged after stealing 133 tonnes of chicken and selling it on in Cuba amid economic turmoil and food shortages in the country.Thieves took the poultry stored in 1,660 boxes from a state facility in the capital Havana and used the money from the sales to buy products including refrigerators, TVs, air conditioners, and laptops. The chicken would have been distributed to citizens under the communist-run island’s ration book system – introduced more than 60 years ago after Fidel Castro’s revolution – which provides subsidised food and is an integral part of daily Cuban life.The amount stolen…