- World News
Opinion: Iranian regime will stop at nothing to ensure survival
The recent protests that erupted under the pretext of socioeconomic deprivations, but are rooted in political grievances stemming from decades of lack of accountability and repression, have become a trend in the country. Regrettably, the brutal crackdown of these protests by the regime is also the disconcerting order of the day. This is all while the authorities continue to make…
- World News
German-Iranian ties face scrutiny as hard-liner Raisi takes office
Iran has a new head of government: Ebrahim Raisi. The 60-year-old cleric with the rimless glasses and what comes across as a shy smile was inaugurated as president on Tuesday, and takes the oath of office Thursday. The ultraconservative lawyer is taking over the presidency at a crucial time. Indirect negotiations with the United States in Vienna on the future…
- World News
Cuban government asks for humanitarian aid
Though Cuba has been undergoing an economic crisis for years, the situation has worsened considerably in the past few months. A monetary reform to put an end to the country’s dual currency system at the beginning of the year — plus the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent fall of tourism — have combined to create conditions that are increasingly untenable,…
- World News
Kashmir: A conflict between wild animals and humans
On June 3, 4-year-old Adda Mudasir was playing with her toys a few feet away from her brother and grandfather on the lawn of her home in Ompora village in India-administered Kashmir. By the time her family heard the screams it was too late. A leopard had attacked the girl and dragged her away, leaving only her toys and shoes…
- World News
Ebrahim Raisi: What to expect from Iran’s new president
On Thursday, 60-year-old Ebrahim Raisi will be sworn in before parliament as the Islamic Republic’s sixth president after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei inaugurated him on Tuesday in a ceremony broadcast live on state television. However, the handover of power to a new administration is being greeted by many Iranians with a sense of hopelessness and resignation. “Raisi and his…
- World News
On Tunisian streets, economic worries and political fury
Wadi bin Soleiman taps at his mobile phone. He’s sitting on his chair, inside his ceramics store in the historic old city of Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. The market is usually a focal point for tourists. But it’s shortly before midday and bin Soleiman has yet to get a single customer. Like so many other Tunisians involved in the…
- World News
Meet an Afghan who returned from space with a message of peace
As a child, Abdul Ahad Mohmand says he dreamed of flying, but he never imagined he would one day visit outer space. He was born in 1959 in Sardeh, a remote village south of Kabul. In 1988, he would become the first and only Afghan cosmonaut on Russia’s Mir space station. Now a German citizen, 62-year-old Mohmand spoke with DW…
- World News
A year after Beirut explosion, parents seek justice for their daughter
Paul Naggear and Tracy Awad-Naggear thought they and their 3-year-old daughter would at least be safe at home. It wasn’t like they expected much from the state in Lebanon anyway. The economy was in free fall and the COVID-19 pandemic was also impacting the country. Nobody really believed things could get much worse than they were. But anybody who thought…
- World News
Why are there so few UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Africa?
This year, eight mosques in northern Ivory Coast and Ivindo National Park in Gabon have landed one of the coveted places on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. In addition to the two sites in Africa, the responsible committee at its 44th session in the Chinese port city of Fuzhou named 16 candidates from Europe and another 16 from other world regions…
- World News
Ethiopia: A catastrophe in the making
In Ethiopia’s Tigray province, a lack of medical supplies, frequent power cuts and a severe fuel scarcity — not to mention a cash shortage due to closed banks, and growing unemployment after factories were shut down or looted — is making life increasingly difficult for the population, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). “The humanitarian situation…
- World News
COVID-19: France makes life difficult for unvaccinated
Business has been difficult for restaurateur Sylvain Belaud ever since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, with turnover plummeting by 60% last year. And now, the director of the Cafe Francoeur in the Montmartre area in northern Paris will have to face what feels like yet another obstacle on the way back to business as usual. A “health pass” will…
- World News
How US-China sanctions create two parallel tech universes
As the US continues to blacklist dozens of Chinese companies, Beijing is increasingly imposing its own sanctions on US organizations and individuals it accuses of meddling in China’s internal affairs. Last month, the US government added 23 Chinese companies to an economic blacklist, including 14 companies that have allegedly enabled Beijing’s oppression of the Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang province.…
- World News
Korean Peninsula: Why is Pyongyang reaching out to Seoul?
The resumption of communications between North and South Korea across the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) has triggered renewed hopes of detente on a peninsula that has been divided since the end of the Korean War in 1953. It also raised expectations that a solution to the problems associated with Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs could, potentially, be found. The North…
- World News
Journalists under threat: August’s 10 most urgent cases
Photojournalists experience a unique set of challenges, as the nature of their work means they must get direct, close access to the action. In a 2018 global survey of photojournalists, 90% of respondents told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) they have had to work in high-risk environments, and almost half had been injured at least once while working. In…
- World News
Europe remembers Sinti, Roma murdered under Nazi rule
“Dear Banetla, I have to tell you that my two youngest children have died.” Those words were written by Margarete Bamberger in a 1943 letter to her sister in Berlin. It was smuggled out of the so-called “gypsy camp” at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Margarete, her husband Willi and their children were all detained at the death camp. Margarete and…
- World News
Palestinians in Jerusalem neighborhood fear for their future
Muna al-Kurd, a 23-year-old university graduate living in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied east Jerusalem, is facing possible eviction along with her family from their home of more than 60 years. “All probabilities are on the table. They might reject our appeal which means expulsion, or they might postpone again,” said al-Kurd in a video update on social media…
