Walter

Walter

Why diplomacy between the US and Iran collapsed

"Significant progress" had been made during talks in Geneva, Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi said on Friday. His country mediated negotiations between the United States and Iran, with the latter offering assurances that it would not seek to acquire nuclear material for the production of an atomic bomb. This commitment was a "very important breakthrough" that

Donald Trump’s Iran objectives: What can be achieved?

After Israel launched "preemptive strikes" against Iran on Saturday morning, President Donald Trump announced in a speech that "major combat operations" by the US were also underway. "Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian ⁠regime," Trump said in a video shared on social ⁠media, vowing to destroy

Pakistan: Hundreds of Afghan Taliban Fighters Killed

Pakistan and Afghanistan continued to exchange strikes on Saturday, offering conflicting reports on their progress and discrediting each others' versions of events. Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Saturday that over 331 Afghan Taliban forces had been killed and more than 500 wounded during ongoing airstrikes and clashes with Afghanistan. He added that air attacks targeted infrastructure

Iceland Considers EU Membership Amid Strained US Ties

It was apparently meant as a joke but nobody in Iceland found it funny. In January, Billy Long, US President Donald Trump's nominee for ambassador to the Nordic island nation joked to some members of the US Congress that Iceland should become the 52nd US state and that he would be governor. There was immediate

Trump and Rubio have brought Cuba’s government to the brink

In the early hours of Wednesday, a speedboat carrying 10 Cuban exiles drew near the coast of Cuba. It appears to have set out from Florida . It was intercepted by a patrol boat of the Cuban coastguard. There was an exchange of fire that left four people in the speedboat dead and the other six injured.

Lebanon on edge as US and Israel launch attack on Iran

As the fallout from today's US-backed Israeli strikes on Iran unfolds, Lebanon's situation remains particularly precarious. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has repeatedly said that his country will not interfere in foreign disputes. Earlier this week, he urged Hezbollah to not drag Lebanon into "another adventure." In January, Naim Qassem, secretary-general of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, said that any US attack on Iran

How Two Directors Fought After Their Film Was Stolen

It sounds like the plot of a screenplay, but it happened to two Berlin film students in real life.  Moritz Henneberg and Julius Drost had created an animated short film for their final project at university. "Butty" tells the tale of a household robot that gets kicked out when it can 't  do its job properly. When t he two

Will Franco‑German differences sink €100bn fighter jet plan?

Michael Schoellhorn, the CEO of Airbus Defence and Space, says the Future Combat Air System (FCAS), the long-planned Franco-German fighter jet and air defense project, will survive but that "there will have to be some restructuring in certain parts." Speaking in an exclusive interview with DW, Schoellhorn, whose company is one of the two main partners in

Nationality at the Olympics: Does it matter?

After winning gold in Italy, becoming the first South American to win a Winter Olympic medal, Lucas Pinheiro Braathen said: "I just hope that Brazilians look at this and truly understand that your difference is your superpower." Pinheiro Braathen, who competed for Norway in the 2022 Winter Olympics and is the son of a Brazilian mother and

State elections could spell doom for Germany’s oldest party

The center-left Social Democrats (SPD), Germany's first political party, are struggling to muster their optimism in a year when five of Germany's 16 federal states are set to elect new parliaments. According to the latest opinion polls, the SPD could be voted out of power in two states that is has governed for decades. In two
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