- World News
A kayak tour of Argentina for environmental protection
Juan Camelia is not really much of a sportsman. He got his kayak just six years ago, to paddle about on the Parana River and go camping in the great outdoors. Now, he is one of more than 40 kayakers who have caused a considerable stir in Argentina with their spectacular environmental campaign to get the Congress to pass a…
- World News
Are India’s emergency visas for Afghans issued based on religion?
Days after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan, the Indian government introduced a new category of visa to fast-track the applications of Afghans who want to come to India and flee what has become a growing humanitarian crisis. It was announced that all Afghans, irrespective of their religion, could apply for the so-called e-Emergency X-Misc Visa online. However, the announcement…
- World News
Could Afghanistan under Taliban rule become a haven for Islamist militants?
As the US withdraws its military from Afghanistan, it is clear that Washington’s goal in the country has always been to guarantee American security. President Joe Biden left little doubt to this effect during a speech last week. “Our single most vital interest in Afghanistan remains what it always was, to prevent a terrorist attack on our country.” Biden’s assertion…
- World News
Rwanda’s military intervention in Mozambique raises eyebrows
On August 9, the Rwandan military announced it had taken the strategically important northern Mozambican port of Mocimboa da Praia from al-Shabab militants. Kigali daily, “New Times,” quoted Brigadier-General Pascal Muhizi saying the Rwandan army had chased out the al-Shabab fighters. The jihadists had occupied Mocimboa da Praia in the Cabo Delgado province for over a year but fled towards…
- Sports News
Gnabry brace hands Nagelsmann first Bundesliga win, Sane booed by fans
Two Serge Gnabry goals in a rollercoaster second half gave Bayern Munich their first Bundesliga win under Julian Nagelsmann. Leroy Sane paid the price for a lackluster first half and was booed off at half-time. SOURCE: DW News
- World News
Czech Republic: Health care professions become fashionable
In the Czech Republic, the devastation of the coronavirus pandemic reached its peak in late 2020 and early 2021: The country of 10.5 million led the world in per-capita infections and deaths. In all, some 1.7 million Czechs became ill and to date more than 25,000 people in the EU state have died as a result of COVID-19. The only…
- World News
Hungary vs EU: Is Orban striving for Huxit?
Hungary’s unofficial government newspaper Magyar Nemzet (Hungarian Nation) often floats issues that Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his government would like to gauge public opinion on without addressing those issues themselves. Last weekend, it happened again. On Sunday (August 15), the paper opened debate on an issue that had previously been deemed off-limits even in Hungarian government circles: Hungary’s exit…
- Sports News
Blast from the past: Bochum win in the Bundesliga for the first time in 11 years
Newly-promoted Bochum beat Mainz 2-0 in their first Bundesliga home game in over a decade. With a community approach to football and a contender for goal of the season, they’re a welcome addition, SOURCE: DW News
- World News
Friends, enemies, neighbors? The Taliban and the Middle East
A recent editorial in Al-Alam, an Iranian-owned Arabic-language publication, warned people not to trust the Americans the way the Afghan people did. The people of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Libya “link the fate of their countries and their people with America and believe this will open a new door, through which they will enter into a bright and brilliant…
- Sports News
Bundesliga: Dominik Szoboszlai starts to make up for lost time in RB Leipzig win
After a shock defeat in their Bundesliga opener, RB Leipzig stepped up a gear with a 4-0 win over Stuttgart. Victory was a welcome relief for new coach Jesse Marsch, who had a familiar, if frustrated, face to thank. SOURCE: DW News
- World News
AfricaLink on Air – 20 August 2021
Are civilians across Africa arming themselves?+++Ivory Coast closes borders+++Al-Shabab’s presence in Somalia as AU mission winds down+++Nigerian teen helps youths with vocational training+++Sports SOURCE: DW News
- Sports News
Fan rights in Germany: Police databases, surveillance and civil rights protests
German football fans are often labeled violent, despite decreasing rates of football-related offenses. New police data reveals the extent to which the authorities keep track of supporters, infringing their civil rights. SOURCE: DW News
- Sports News
Female footballer: ‘When I see the Taliban on the street, I feel so scared’
Speaking to DW from her basement, a female Afghan football player describes her horror at the return of the Taliban and begs for help. While aid efforts continue behind the scenes, here is her story. SOURCE: DW News
- Sports News
Afghanistan youth footballer dead after falling from U.S. plane
Afghanistan’s top sports authority has confirmed that youth footballer Zaki Anwari was among the individuals who died falling from an aeroplane departing Kabul on Monday. SOURCE: DW News
- Sports News
Afghanistan youth footballer dead after falling from US plane
Afghanistan’s top sports authority has confirmed that youth footballer Zaki Anwari was among the individuals who died falling from an airplane departing Kabul on Monday. SOURCE: DW News
- Sports News
‘We’ve said goodbye to the women’s team’: Fears in Afghanistan for future of women’s football
With the Taliban back in power in Kabul, there is widespread concern that women in Afghanistan will once again have their freedoms severely curtailed. The women’s national football team and the local league could fold. SOURCE: DW News
- World News
Alexi Navalny poisoning marked ‘point of no return’ for Kremlin critics
“I have just flown home. I’m going to passport control. All day I’ve only been thinking about how they will search me in particular because I am a foreign agent,” journalist Olga Churakova tells her podcast listeners in an emotional recording from a Moscow airport. She describes a sense that she is not safe in her home country. Churakova tries…
- World News
Will Moscow shake hands with the Taliban?
“We are not worried.” This comment by the Russian president’s special envoy to Afghanistan, Samir Kabulov, sums up Moscow’s reaction to the changeover of power there. On Sunday, Kabulov justified this stance on the state television channel Russia-1, saying that Russia had “good relations” with both the former Afghan government and the Taliban. This despite the fact that the terrorist…
- World News
Relative of DW journalist killed by the Taliban
Taliban fighters hunting a DW journalist have shot dead one member of his family and seriously injured another. The Taliban were conducting a house-to-house search in western Afghanistan to try and find the journalist, who now works in Germany. Other relatives were able to escape at the last moment and are now on the run. DW’s director general, Peter Limbourg,…
- World News
Essay: Authors of the ‘War on Terror’ in denial to the bitter end in Afghanistan
“It will probably be like last time. When they took Kabul overnight,” Kabul resident Ahmad Jawed, 30, told me last Saturday. When the militant Islamist TalibanTaliban first captured the Afghan capital 25 years ago, Jawed was a young child. But he remembers that morning well. Suddenly the fighters were there, while the members of the mujahedeen government, who had been…
- World News
Afghanistan: What Taliban takeover means for the region
The Chinese government has so far appeared to be at ease with the collapse of the Afghan government and the Taliban’s takeover of the country. “The Chinese embassy in Afghanistan is continuing to operate as normal, and its ambassador and embassy staff will remain in their posts,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Monday. Most Chinese citizens in Afghanistan…
- Sports News
Bundesliga: How Matarazzo and Mislintat are shaping a brave new era at Stuttgart
Stuttgart opened their Bundesliga season with a rout of Greuther Fürth. Tougher tests lie ahead, but their coach and sporting director are shaping an exciting new era for an old powerhouse of German football. SOURCE: DW News
- World News
Meet the Middle Eastern migrants trapped in Lithuania
The trip from the center of the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, to the refugee reception center in Rudninkai takes about 40 minutes. It’s not that easy to get there. We have to stop and ask for directions several times. But eventually we park our car at the edge of a forest and then follow a well-trodden path through the undergrowth toward…
- World News
Taliban triumph means more worries in Africa
For over a decade now, there’s been a surge in the activities of extremist groups in the east and west Africa, the Sahel and parts of southern Africa. Many are Islamist militant groups with some form of affiliation to al-Qaeda, an organization the United Nations has said shares links with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Somali-based media affiliated to the homegrown…
- World News
Indonesia: Will the army’s ban on ‘virginity tests’ last?
The chief of staff of the Indonesian army, General Andika Perkasa, recently announced that the army will no longer conduct virginity tests on women applying to join the forces. He was referring to the invasive two-finger examination that was conducted to determine whether female applicants’ hymens were intact. The practice, used in the past by the military to determine recruits’…
- World News
Afghanistan: Pakistan rejoices at Taliban victory as West flounders
Afghanistan has a familiar power back in place. Kabul has fallen. The Taliban have won. And Pakistanis are euphoric. To many a foe, but to others a friend, the cloistered group of extremists has long-held cordial ties with Islamabad, and the Taliban’s recent rise from the flames has left many Pakistanis in raptures. Khan: Removal of the ‘shackles of slavery’…
- World News
In Kabul, terrified Afghans wait for the call to safety
In a crowded Kabul cellar earlier this week, seven men acted out a desperate, terrifying scenario: One of them pretended to be a Taliban militant, the others had to convince them that they were students — not men who had spent years working for the German army. “We practiced our role: We are studying this, we are studying here,” one…
- World News
Taliban victory: A likely boost for Islamist extremists in the Middle East
While the West is anxiously watching developments after the Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan, “Islamic State” (IS), al-Qaeda and other terror militias are also observing what is happening with keen interest — to say the least. “We have to expect that not only IS, but also al-Qaeda and other smaller groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan will become stronger,” Guido Steinberg, a…
- World News
Why the Afghan army folded to the Taliban
US President Joe Biden on Monday addressed the nation to share his views on the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and the Taliban takeover of the war-ravaged country. As Biden justified his decision to pull all US troops out of Afghanistan, he blamed the Afghan leadership for not resisting Taliban advances in recent weeks. “The truth is: this did unfold more…
- World News
The conflict in Tigray, Ethiopia
Who’s fighting who? Ethiopian government soldiers and Tigrayan fighters are battling for control of the country’s northern Tigray region. The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) sees Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed as a bitter enemy: in the 25 years before he became Ethiopia’s leader in 2018, the TPLF domintated national politics, and controlled ministerial, government and military appointments. Critics called…
