Author: DW

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed an agreement with the Council of Europe (CoE) on Wednesday to establish a special tribunal to prosecute those accused of orchestrating Russia’s war in Ukraine. Ukraine argues that the tribunal is urgently needed to hold Russia’s leadership accountable for launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022. “We need to show clearly aggression leads to punishment and we must make it happen together, all of Europe,” Zelenskyy said after signing the accord with CoE Secretary General Alain Berset. Tribunal to be set up under the aegis of Europe’s top rights body The creation of the tribunal…

A former head of Venezuela’s military intelligence pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and narcoterrorism charges a week before his trial was set to begin in a United States federal court. Hugo Carvajal — a close aide of the country’s late President Hugo Chavez — on Wednesday pleaded guilty to four criminal counts, including narcoterrorism conspiracy, conspiracy to import cocaine and weapons charges. The indictment accused the retired major general of leading a cartel composed of senior Venezuelan military officers that attempted to “flood” the US with cocaine in collusion with leftist guerrillas from neighboring Colombia. The 65-year-old faces a maximum…

Thanks to sweeping spending cuts, Argentine President Javier Milei has managed to bring inflation in his country down from a monthly 25% in December 2023 to below 3% now, according to official data published by the country’s INDEC statistics agency. And yet, the cost of living in Argentina is still rising, forcing the libertarian leader to make another controversial proposal to the public. He’s called on his fellow citizens to spend their cash dollars squirreled away in mattresses and foreign bank accounts, long held by Argentines as a hedge against decades of economic turmoil. Last week (June 5), Milei’s government sent a bill…

Billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has changed the venue of the party celebrating his wedding with former TV presenter Lauren Sanchez, following protests against the event scheduled for the weekend in the Italian city of Venice. The wedding party, which was rumored to be held this Saturday in a popular and central nightlife area, in Cannaregio’s Scuola Grande di Santa Maria della Misericordia, was moved to an isolated, less accessible part of the lagoon city for security reasons. The highly anticipated event, dubbed “the wedding of the century,” is set to draw a bevy of celebrities, including US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, both…

What you need to know The US was the biggest funder of global HIV initiatives until the start of Donald Trump’s second term as President Experts told DW cuts to domestic health institutions and foreign aid are likely to jeopardize efforts to stop an increase in HIV infections They said the risk was real despite Lencapavir, a highly promising, preventative drug that’s now approved in the US for HIV prevention The battle against HIV has been dealt repeated blows in 2025 with cuts to funding for major global aid programs by the United States. There have also been budget cuts…

It came as no surprise who was the center of attention on media day at the Germany women’s training camp in the small southern town of Herzogenaurach. With Alexandra Popp having called time on her international career it is Bayern Munich’s Giulia Gwinn who has been tasked with leading Germany into next month’s Euros in Switzerland. “I feel a great honor and a great deal of pride,” Gwinn told DW, five months after her appointment as Germany’s new captain.  “I feel a different (level of) responsibility, but think I have adjusted to it well,” she said. “I try to listen to what’s going on…

A civil court in Nantes ruled Tuesday that the French government bore partial responsibility for the 2016 death of Jean-Rene Auffray, a 50-year-old jogger who suffered rapid pulmonary oedema, which sees the lungs fill with liquid, after he inhaled high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide on a beach in western Brittany. In a statement, the court said that it “holds the state liable for negligence due to its failure to implement European and national regulations designed to protect waters from agricultural pollution,” which is “the main cause of the proliferation of green algae in Brittany.” “For the first time, a French…

On June 21, former presidential candidate and popular blogger Siarhei Tsikhanouski and 13 other Belarusian political prisoners were released following US mediation. The day after his release, he spoke about his political convictions at a press conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, with his wife, Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. Tsikhanouski told journalists that he can hardly believe he is free and he may not have survived if he’d had to spend 20 years in prison. In 2021, the entrepreneur and blogger was sentenced to 18 years in a penal colony during a court trial held behind closed doors. Investigators accused the activist of organizing street…

China’s choke hold on rare earths — the minerals essential for electronics, automotive and defense systems — gave it significant leverage over the United States during recent tariff talks in London. Controlling about 60% of global rare earth production and nearly 90% of refining, China tightened its grip in April by imposing export controls on seven rare earth elements and permanent magnets. The curbs, partly in response to sky-high tariffs on Chinese exports imposed by US President Donald Trump, exposed US vulnerabilities, as the country lacks domestic refining capacity. “The whole world economy relies on these magnets from China,” Jost Wübbeke, managing partner at the Berlin-based Sinolytics research house specializing in…

A double bass almost four meters tall in the orchestra; a Lithuanian accordionist who likes to play at lofty heights; a South African cellist who makes the audience sing: The Rheingau Music Festival presents special people in special places and has become one of the largest festivals in Europe, hosting classical but also jazz, pop and world music. “The spaces are an integral part of us,” said festival managing director Marsilius von Ingelheim of the setting. “We bring unique concert experiences to historical and modern locations in the region.” The wine-growing Rheingau region in the central German state of Hessen features…