Author: DW

The United States government has barred former Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei from entering the US over allegations of his involvement in significant corruption.” Giammattei has been accused of supporting the attorney general who was at the forefront of a judicial campaign against the Central American country’s new, anti-graft president, Bernardo Arevalo. “The State Department has credible information indicating·that Giammattei accepted bribes in exchange for the performance of his public functions during his tenure as president of Guatemala, actions that undermined the rule of law and government transparency,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement on Wednesday. Guatemala after Bernado…

The British multinational energy giant Shell is under constant scrutiny over its operations in Nigeria and pollution, especially in the oil-rich Niger Delta. The company this week said it wants to sell off its onshore Nigerian subsidiary, the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) in a deal worth $2.4 billion (€2.2 billion). It named the buyers as Renaissance, a consortium comprised of four Nigeria-based exploration and production companies and an international energy group. The deal is still subject to Nigerian government approval. Shell said it would not completely exit Nigeria. “This agreement marks an important milestone for Shell in Nigeria, aligning with our previously announced intent to exit onshore oil production in the Niger…

A man has died after an explosion in Dublin city centre.The blast happened in a hostel and was confined to one room. Irish police said a man was fatally injured and there were no other injuries reported.Officers and Dublin Fire Brigade were called to Little Britain Street following reports of a blast inside a Depaul homeless hostel after 3.30pm on Thursday. The cause of the explosion is under investigation as police examine the site. It is understood officers did not suspect foul play in their initial assessment of the scene. Residents have been evacuated from the premises and a cordon…

In January this year, UNESCO had not only declared the historic center of the Ukrainian port city of Odesa a World Heritage Site, but also added it to the list of endangered human heritage. The aim was to save and protect foreign culture from destruction during the Russian war. The renewed Russian attack on the port city has caused great indignation at UNESCO. In an interview with DW, Lutz Möller, deputy secretary general of the German UNESCO commission, stresses that the sites are of “universal significance.” Three museums in Odesa hit In the buffer zone in the Old Town, which is…

Thousands of Russians have been affected by heating systems failing across the country, including Moscow and its outskirts, the Moscow Oblast, as they face one of the harshest winters in decades. The wave of breakdowns started in December and shows no sign of stopping. This week, at least 16 people suffered burns in the city of Nizhny Novgorod when a large-bore heating pipe exploded, spouting boiling water into the street. The pipe failure also left over 3,000 people without heat, according to a local news channel on Telegram. The messaging service is one of the few remaining platforms Russians use…

Two men were arrested on Thursday over the murder of Ecuadoran prosecutor who was tasked with investigating last week’s dramatic gang attack on a TV studio that was broadcast live. Prosecutor Cesar Suarez was gunned down in his car in the port city of Guayaquil on Wednesday. “We have apprehended two suspects involved in the murder of prosecutor Cesar Suarez… after investigative steps that allowed us to identify the alleged involvement in the criminal act,” Police Commander General Cesar Zapata said on social media. Police said the killing had the hallmarks of an assassination and evidence they recovered included a…

The UK government is backing new financial support for a controversial form of electricity that is generated by burning wood pellets.The news has been welcomed by the energy industry, but it could contradict advice from its climate advisers. The UK classes biomass as clean power, because new trees are planted to absorb the carbon dioxide released from burning the wood pellets – though this science is disputed.Its renewable status entitles it to government subsidies of around £600m a year, under a scheme due to expire in 2027.The government has today launched a consultation about extending the subsidies from 2027 to…

In 2020, the world was heralding a new wave of queer creativity in Russia, a state that had outlawed much LGBTQ cultural life.  “The country’s LGBTQ+ music and nightlife scene is changing how the world looks at Russian youth,” beamed i-D magazine in April that year. Gay artist, model and musician Angel Ulyanov embodied this idea, his latest single and video serving to “dismantle homophobia” in the former Soviet Union.      Founded only five years after President Vladimir Putin’s infamous “gay propaganda law” was passed in 2013, the Moscow-based publication O-Zine was then a vanguard of the queer culture underground. But this seeming tolerance…

Mauritania’s national team was the last of the 24 teams to arrive in Ivory Coast for the 34th Africa Cup of Nations. The players, dressed in traditional national costumes, proudly strode off the Mauritania Airlines plane that had delivered the team to the small airport in Bouake. The Western Sahara nation that these players hail from is mostly made up of desert and has one of the lowest population densities of any country in the world. Most of Mauritania’s almost five million inhabitants live in the south — in or near the capital, Nouakchott. The fact that this country has qualified…

The US on Wednesday launched a new wave of missile strikes on Houthi-controlled sites in Yemen.  US Central Command (CENTCOM) said American forces targeted 14 missile sites. The Houthi missiles presented an “imminent threat to merchant vessels and US Navy ships in the region,” the military said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.   The Houthi-controlled Saba news agency said on Thursday that US and British aircraft had targeted a number of areas in Yemen. The governorates that were targeted were Hodeidah, Taiz, Dhamar, al Bayda and Saada, the agency reported. Yemen’s Houthis hit US-owned ship in the Gulf of Aden Meanwhile, Houthi rebels claimed…