World

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...

A fatal train collision occurred outside Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, late Monday, killing at least 14 people, the state-owned KAI rail company said on Tuesday. It added that another 84 people received hospital treatment. What do we know about the crash A long-distance train crashed into the rear car of a stopped commuter train at Bekasi Timur Station outside Jakarta. The car was designated for women only, a common measure taken to prevent harassment. According to Anne Purba, a spokeswoman for the KAI, all of the victims were on the commuter train. Officials said that all 240 passengers on the Argo Bromo Anggrek long-distance train were evacuated safely. Rescue operation continues The Jakarta search and rescue agency said in a statement that the collision caused "significant d...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Friday where he said he held a "very productive meeting" with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. "There is a strategic security arrangement that we are actively developing across three key areas," Zelenskyy wrote on social media. "The first is the export of Ukrainian security expertise and capabilities in air defense. The second is energy cooperation, which makes Ukraine more resilient in this difficult time. The third is the area of food security," he added. For Zelenskyy, who is being accompanied by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and national security adviser Rustem Umerov, it's a second visit to Saudia Arabia in a matter of weeks. "Today, we are advancing our agreements with Saudi Arabia in the area...

The United States Justice Department is closing its investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, removing an obstacle to the confirmation of Kevin Warsh, President Donald Trump's preferred choice to head up the US central bank. The move by US Attorney Jeanine Pirro, the top federal prosecutor in Washington DC and a Trump ally, for now ends an inquiry which had prompted a key Republican senator to block Trump's bank nominees. The inquiry had been investigating cost overruns in renovations of the Fed's Washington headquarters but Pirro said she ⁠had ⁠instead asked the Fed's internal watchdog, the Office of Inspector General (IG), to take over. "The IG has the authority to hold the Federal Reserve accountable to American taxpayers," Pirro said in a social media post. "I expect ...

European powers are moving to establish a multinational naval mission to secure shipping in the Strait of Hormuz after fighting in the Iran war disrupted traffic through one of the world’s most critical trade routes.  At talks in London this week, military planners from 30 countries met to discuss how such an operation could work in practice and how commercial vessels could be protected. What would a 'defensive mission' involve?  At the heart of proposals by United Kingdom and France is a "strictly defensive" multinational naval operation — focused on protecting commercial vessels from attacks rather than targeting positions on land. The mission, the two countries say, would be deployed only after a negotiated end to hostilities between the United States and Iran.  According to Jürgen ...

A US Army Special Forces soldier has been charged with using classified information to make more than $400,000 (€342,480) betting on an online prediction market tied to the January operation that captured former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the US Justice Department said on Thursday. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, allegedly used sensitive details from the mission to place around 13 wagers on Polymarket, an online betting market, that US forces would enter Caracas and depose Maduro. According to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, "Van Dyke participated in the planning and execution" of the military operation to capture Maduro and "used his access to classified information about that operation to personally profit." He later moved most of the proceeds...

Japanese police said they arrested a South Korean national holding a banner carrying political messages on Wednesday for allegedly obstructing an annual spring festival at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine.  The shrine honors Japan's 2.5 million war dead, including convicted criminals.  Victims of Japanese aggression and imperialism before and during World War II, especially China and the Koreas, often perceive visits to the shrine as demonstrating a lack of remorse about Japan's wartime past.  The 64-year-old held up a banner carrying messages including one urging "war criminals" to stop praying at the shrine, and another making territorial claims on an island disputed between Japan and South Korea.  According to the Japanese Kyodo news agency, the man stood at the main gate in front of the shr...