World

For years, Khasan was little more than a very remote place on the edge of Russia. Less than 500 people live in the village in the country's far east, more than 5,600 miles (9,012 kilometers) from Moscow. But it's here that Russia shares a mere 10.5-mile border with North Korea — and Khasan is the only Russian settlement along that short stretch. Since 1959, the so-called Korean-Russian Friendship Railway Bridge has crossed the Tumen River here, serving as the only land connection between the two countries. But in recent years, Russia and North Korea have been building a parallel road bridge just a few hundred yards away. The bridge is now nearing completion ahead of schedule, raising concerns in Kyiv that Russia could use it to secretly bring North Korean troops to the front lines in Ukra...

The Polish leader didn't mince his words. "We must wage a resolute fight against this violence, because thugs, hooligans, and this culture of violence are becoming increasingly brazen and insolent — and also because they have received political support," Donald Tusk said on Tuesday, before a Polish cabinet meeting in Warsaw. The liberal-conservative prime minister said he deplored the fact that "more and more such incidents" are taking place all over Poland. Tusk's comments came in response to an incident in Wroclaw two days earlier, in which three Polish men brutally beat up a young Ukrainian man and his girlfriend on the street. Cellphone videos show the attackers kicking the Ukrainian man as he lies on the ground. The woman was also hit, sustaining injuries to her neck and ear. The at...

The signal to move comes suddenly — and within a minute or so the fire truck is full and speeding off into the distance, a cloud of orange dust swirling in its wake. "There's always a bit of adrenaline when you get the call," marine firefighter Julien says. "But we're trained; we're prepared." Maitre Julien — whom DW can only identity by rank and first name — is part of Marseille-based battalion deployed to France's Gironde region to tackle a wildfire which prompted the largest evacuations in the country since World War II. Some 264 firefighters were injured in the fight against the Gironde fire, four of whom lost their lives. In nearby towns, French flags still fly at half mast to mark the loss. "It's always on our mind," Lieutenant Damien, another marine firefighter, explains as his te...

It took decades before Germany recognized the Romani Holocaust — the Nazi genocide of 500,000 European Roma and Sinti during World War II. Several more decades passed before the European Holocaust Memorial Day for Sinti and Roma became an official German and European day of remembrance, celebrated each year on August 2. Based on initiatives by Polish Roma groups, the Nazi liquidation of the so-called "Gypsy Family Camp" in the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration and Extermination Camp on the evening of August 2-3, 1944, was first commemorated half a century later, in 1994. Germany marks the European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day on August 2Image: Joerg Carstensen/dpa/picture alliance Thousands of deported Roma and Sinti had already been killed as a result of malnutrition and disease. That eve...