Author: DW

On London’s Park Lane there is a private jet showroom.You can relax in a section of the cabin taken from an executive airliner, complete with cocoa-cream leather sofas and the plushest of swivel armchairs. Steve Varsano, founder of The Jet Business, runs me through my brand options if I have an appetite for luxury and at least £10m to spare: the Citation, Gulfstream or Embraer. But he disputes my description.”I’m allergic to the word luxury because I think corporate aircraft are a business tool. It’s a time machine. 70% of all the passengers that occupy corporate jets are middle management.…

Senegalese security forces clashed with protesters on Friday as frustration continued over the postponement of the presidential election. Police in riot gear fired tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets in an attempt to stop the protesters from reaching Place de la Nation in Dakar. According to the AFP news agency, a student protesting the delayed election died during the clashes, which saw demonstrators throw stones at the police and set fire to tires. The  presidential election scheduled for February 25 was delayed by President Macky Sall until December.Senegal’s young artists criticize political crisisTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider…

After months of speculation about a rift with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi has been removed from his post, with the president saying it was “time for renewal”.Gen Zaluzhnyi is seen as a national hero by many Ukrainians so why has he been replaced, and will this change Ukraine’s fortunes in the war with Russia? It is not unusual for military leadership to be rotated during an extended period of combat operations. Gen Zaluzhnyi is considered to have been instrumental in resisting the Russian invasion and is an immensely popular figure in Ukraine.But, military leadership requires a broad spectrum…

The depth of the ties between Burkina Faso and Russian President Vladimir Putin was made clear a few days ago, when Moscow decided to help the country’s military junta out by sending 100 military staff to Ouagadougou — even as the war in Ukraine continues unabated. According to a Telegram post, these soldiers are supposed to help protect junta leader Ibrahim Traore as well as the general public from terrorist attacks. But as members of the newly established Russian Africa Corps landed in the capital city, it was clear they would de facto be taking over from the defunct Wagner Group — Russia’s infamous private military contractor led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, who…

A man wielding an axe and knife as he held 15 hostages on a train in western Switzerland has been shot dead by police.Swiss police said the perpetrator was a Farsi and English-speaking 32-year-old Iranian asylum seeker. Fourteen passengers and the driver were held by the man for almost four hours before police stormed the train and killed him.”The hostages were all released unharmed,” police said in a statement on Friday.No details were given regarding the assailant’s motives. The incident began on Thursday night on a train between Baulmes and Yverdon-les-Bains in the mountainous district of Vaud at around 6.35pm.The…

Almost 100 Russian tourists arrived at Pyongyang International Airport in North Korea on Friday to enjoy a private skiing and sightseeing tour. The visitors are the first tourists to be allowed into North Korea since it closed its doors during the coronavirus pandemic. What we know about the tour Russia’s state-owned TASS news agency said 97 Russians had left Russia’s far eastern city of Vladivostok for North Korea on a group tour. The group was said to include teenage ski athletes. A North Korean-operated Air Koryo flight carried the visitors to Pyongyang, the Russian Embassy in North Korea said in…

The February 8 elections have failed to end the political turmoil that has plagued Pakistan for almost two years. Pre-election opinion polls had predicted a clear win for former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in the 342-strong National Assembly, Pakistan’s lower house of parliament. But the incarcerated ex-premier’s party failed to secure a simple majority, according to unofficial results. PTI-backed candidates are projected to win a little over 100 seats, while Khan’s main rival and three-time former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League is likely to bag around 80. The Pakistan People’s Party, headed by Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, has…

Jailed former prime minister of Pakistan Imran Khan has claimed victory for his supporters in the country’s general election – via a video generated using artificial intelligence (AI).The clip of the former cricket star was uploaded on social media on Friday just hours after his rival Nawaz Sharif also claimed to have won despite vote counting continuing. Many candidates from Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were forced to stand as independents in the election after an alleged crackdown which saw senior party figures jailed and their campaigning activities restricted.In the video, Khan is heard telling independent candidates to celebrate their win,…

Oleksandr Syrskyi has been named the new chief of Ukraine’s armed forces after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy carried out a long-awaited military reshuffle this week. Zelenskyy said “urgent changes” were required, as Ukraine was not able to “achieve the goals of our state on the ground.” The Ukrainian president has allegedly had a strained relationship with Syrskyi’s predecessor, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, since the failure of Ukraine’s 2023 counteroffensive. There have also been persistent rumors that Zaluzhnyi is planning to enter politics and run against Zelenskyy once elections are scheduled in the war-torn country, although the popular general has never publicly voiced any political ambitions. In recent months,…

Any deal between Israel and Hamas including the possible release of Marwan Barghouti, arguably the most famous Palestinian prisoner at present, as part of cease-fire negotiations has yet to be approved by the warring sides. However, earlier this week, Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, put Barghouti’s name on a list of demands. Barghouti, 64, is regarded as one of the leaders of the first intifada, from 1987 to 1993, and was accused by Israel of also having a leading role the second intifada, the  Palestinian uprising that ran from September 2000 to February 2005. Currently behind bars in Israel, Barghouti is a member of the executive arm of Fatah, a Palestinian nationalist…