World

The Iran war and resulting blockade of the Strait of Hormuz have focused minds on international shipping. Russian officials are promoting the Northern Sea Route (NSR), an Arctic sea lane running along their country's northern coast. President Vladimir Putin said in April the route's importance as "the most safe, reliable and efficient path is becoming ever more obvious." It is the shortest maritime route between Asia and Europe. But it's frozen for much of the year, and comes with significant political considerations. DW asked an environmental foundation which has studied the route — how realistic is this vision of the NSR as a new major shipping passage? Northern shipping route less popular because of Russia's war in Ukraine Shipping goods along the Northern Sea Route can reduce travel...

"Backsliding," "pressure," "political influence over editorial policy" — this is how numerous international reports describe the state of the media in Serbia. Year after year, the international diagnosis of the health of Serbia's media landscape remains the same: While the space for professional independent media is shrinking, the government's propaganda tools are becoming more developed and sophisticated. "The main goal of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) after coming to power in 2012 was to place the entire media landscape under firm control. And they did this very systematically," journalist and media analyst Nedim Sejdinovic told DW. The model, he said, was simple: Media outlets willing to cooperate with the authorities received financial and institutional support, while those th...

Ecuador has started fracking in the Amazon rainforest for the first time, state oil company Petroecuador said Wednesday. The new hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, project is in the Amazonian province of Sucumbios on Ecuador's border with Colombia. The fracking at a new well on Block 57 - Shushufindi Libertador represents "milestone " for oil production in the country, the Ministry of Environment and Energy said in a statement released on Wednesday. The new well is in full production, producing more than 930 barrels a day, the ministry of said. The project is being jointly conducted with a subsidiary of China's national petroleum corporation, CCDC. What is fracking? Fracking entails extracting natural gas and petroleum from subterranean bedrock. It is criticized for using industrial...

Five Maliangarrison towns — Kati, Bamako, Sevare, Gao and Kidal — were targeted simultaneously over the weekend. The Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists of the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) in coordination with the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), mainly composed of Tuareg rebel independence movements, claimed responsibility. Nina Wilen, director for the Africa Programme at Egmont Institute for International Relations, told DW the events are "unprecedented in Mali's history" and showed how "strong JNIM has become over the past year." Wilen added: "The fact that the Malian military intelligence has not been able to detect that these attacks were about to take place is a major failure for them."  Sadio Camara, Mali's defense minister, was killed on Saturday, April 25, in a suicide...