Author: DW

Thousands of junior doctors in England have begun a six-day strike, set to be the longest in the 75-year history of the National Health Service (NHS). The labor action started at 7:00 a.m. local time (0700 GMT) on Wednesday and is due to end at the same time on January 9. Why are the doctors striking? The strike comes amid a long-running pay dispute with the UK government and was announced by the British Medical Association (BMA) in December after the last breakdown of talks. Negotiations collapsed after a pay rise offer of 8-10% was deemed insufficient by the BMA, which is seeking a 35%…

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged hundreds of prisoners of war in the biggest single release of captives since the conflict began in February 2022.Ukrainian authorities said 230 Ukrainian prisoners of war returned home in the first exchange in almost five months on Wednesday. Russia’s defence ministry said 248 Russian servicemen have been freed on the same day under the deal sponsored by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has thanked the “warriors on the frontline who take the occupiers prisoner and replenish our exchange fund”.He added: “The more Russians we take prisoner, the more effective negotiations on exchanges…

A knife attack on Tuesday targeting Lee Jae-myung, the head of South Korea’s main opposition party, has been condemned as an assault on democracy less than 100 days ahead of the 2024 legislative election. Analysts have also suggested the attack, which took place as Lee addressed reporters at a construction site for an airport close to the city of Busan, is a sign of worsening political polarization and an increasing willingness to use smear tactics and violence to further political aims.  The alleged assailant, identified by police as a 66-year-old man, was overpowered immediately after the attack and is being…

On New Year’s Day, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 on the Richter scale shook the west coast of Japan, triggering a tsunami. In its wake, numerous videos purporting to show live footage of the destruction have been circulating on social media. A satellite image shows damaged homes along the coastline following the January 1 earthquake in Ukai, JapanImage: Maxar Technologies/Handout via REUTERS And while many videos do actually show the extent of the natural disaster, others are either old or not even recorded in Japan. Here are three examples gathered by DW’s fact checking team: Does this video…

Investigators behind the scenes are trying to piece together how two planes managed to collide and burst into flames – killing five people – at Tokyo’s Haneda airport.Captured in dramatic footage from the scene, a Japan Airlines aircraft burst into flames and moved along the runway in a burning inferno following a collision with a coastguard plane.Details have now begun to emerge with air traffic transcripts suggesting the coastguard plane had not been cleared for take-off when the crash took place.Japan has already been hit by tragedy following an earthquake on New Year’s Day, with dozens dead and warnings of…

Three weeks after the change of power in Poland, the public media remains the most prominent political dispute between the center-left government of Donald Tusk and Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s outgoing national conservative Law and Justice party (PiS). President Andrzej Duda, an independent close to the PiS, placed this topic at the center of his New Year’s address. “For the first time in free Poland since 1989, there was an attempt to take over the public media by force. The broadcasting signal of some TV channels was turned off and informational programs were no longer broadcast,” Duda said. Poland’s President Andrzej Duda…

The United States and Europe can no longer compete with China, after the cost of producing solar modules there dropped by 42% in 2023 to $0.15 (€0.14) per watt. That gives Chinese manufacturers an enormous cost advantage over international rivals, according to a new Horizons report from consultancy Wood Mackenzie. In 2023, China’s domestic solar additions were double those of the US and the EU combined. China, the world’s solar module powerhouse, now holds 80% of global manufacturing capacity. By 2050, it will account for over 50% of the global power supply, according to Wood Mackenzie.  “China is the lowest-cost solar module manufacturer in the world. Solar module prices in dollar per watt tallied in December show China’s cost of $0.15 well below…

The former president of Sierra Leone, Ernest Bai Koroma, appeared in court on Wednesday on charges of high treason over his alleged involvement in what the government called an attempted coup in late November last year. Koroma, who served as president between 2007 and 2018, was questioned by police three times before he was charged. He was already being held under house arrest. What are the charges against the former president? The charges connect Koroma with armed attacks against Sierra Leone’s main military barracks and a high-security prison in its capital Freetown on November 26. The incident resulted in the…

The pilot of a helicopter that crashed and killed a British couple in Australia had cocaine in his system, a report has found.Ron Hughes, 65, and his wife Diane, 57, were on a sightseeing trip near Sea World in Queensland when their helicopter crashed midair with another on 2 January 2023. The couple from Cheshire died at the scene, as did fellow passenger Vanessa Tadros, 36, from New South Wales, and pilot Ashley Jenkinson, 40. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 0:38 Emergency crews were at the scene where one of the helicopters was upside down…

Jimmy Lai, one of Hong Kong’s most high-profile pro-democracy figures, has pleaded not guilty to charges of “sedition and collusion with foreign forces” in a landmark trial that symbolizes Beijing’s growing reach into the political and legal system of the semi-autonomous Chinese territory. The 76-year-old founder of Apple Daily, a now-shuttered tabloid critical of the Chinese Communist Party, was arrested more than three years ago as part of a widespread crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. Lai is being charged with one count of sedition and two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces under a Beijing-imposed national security…