
Inside Europe 29 May 2025 – DW – 05/29/2025
05/29/2025
May 29, 2025
Released RFE journalist Alsu Kurmasheva on her colleague Farid Mehralizada, who is facing a 12 year prison sentence in Azerbaijan. We meet some of the young people on trial in Turkey following the recent crackdown on dissent, and take a look at the Franco-US relationship in the run up to D-Day.

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DW
14 hours ago
- DW
South Kore arrests wife of impeached former president Yoon – DW – 08/13/2025
Kim Keon Hee is accused of bribery, stock fraud and other allegations. Her arrest came due to fears she would destroy evidence and interfere with the investigation. Her husband, too, is under arrest. South Korea's former first lady Kim Keon Hee became the first in the country's history to be arrested. The charges against the wife of impeached president Yoon Suk Yeol include stock fraud, bribery and influence peddling, charges punishable by years in prison. The 52-year-old has denied the accusations against her, according to a special prosecutor leading the investigation. Kim underwent hours-long questioning last week, with the prosecutors filing for her arrest warrant the day afterwards. "I sincerely apologize for causing trouble despite being a person of no importance," Kim said upon arrival at the prosecutors' office. One of the charges against Kim came as a result of an incident in 2022, when she attended a NATO summit with her husband wearing a luxury Van Cleef pendant reportedly worth $43,000 (€37,000). The item was not listed in the couple's financial disclosure as the local law requires. Kim said the luxury pendant was a fake bought 20 years ago in Hong Kong, with the prosecution found that the piece of jewelry was in fact genuine. Additionally, Kim is accused of receiving two Chanel bags valued at 14,500 US dollars, as well as a diamond necklace, as a bribe from a religious group in return for influence regarding the group's business interests. The prosecution ordered that Kim be arrested due to fears she would destroy evidence and interfere with the investigation, the spokesperson said. Kim's husband Yoon, too, faces trial following his ouster in April due to a failed bid to impose martial law in South Korea. His insurrection charges could be punished by life in jail or even a death sentence.


Int'l Business Times
a day ago
- Int'l Business Times
US Denounces Europe On Speech In Pared-down Rights Report
The United States on Tuesday alleged that human rights were worsening in Western Europe due to internet regulations, in a pared-down annual global report that spared partners of President Donald Trump such as El Salvador. The State Department's congressionally required report historically has offered extensive accounts of all nations' records, documenting in dispassionate detail issues from unjust detention to extrajudicial killing to personal freedoms. For the first report under Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the State Department trimmed sections and took particular aim at countries that have been in the crosshairs of Trump, including Brazil and South Africa. On China, which the United States across administrations has identified as a top adversary, the State Department report said that "genocide" was ongoing against the mostly Muslim Uyghur people, whose plight Rubio took up as a senator. But the report also took striking aim at some of the closest allies of the United States, saying that human rights had worsened in Britain, France and Germany due to regulations on online hate speech. In Britain, following the stabbing deaths of three young girls, authorities took action against internet users who falsely alleged that a migrant was responsible and urged revenge. The State Department report described the British efforts as officials having "repeatedly intervened to chill speech" and said that the close US ally had experienced "credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression." The criticism comes despite Rubio moving aggressively in the United States to deny or strip visas of foreign nationals over their statements and social media postings, especially student activists who have criticized Israel. Trump is an avid social media user who frequently berates opponents in personal tones. His administration has repeatedly taken on Europe over restrictions on social media platforms, many of which are US-based. In February, Vice President JD Vance used a visit to Germany to champion the far-right AfD party after the country's spy agency called it extremist. The report also said that rights deteriorated in 2024 in Brazil, where Trump has pressed against prosecution of former president Jair Bolsonaro, his ally accused of a coup attempt with echoes of the January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol by Trump's supporters. Brazil, the report said, has "undermined democratic debate by restricting access to online content deemed to 'undermine democracy,' the report said. The State Department said that rights "significantly worsened" in South Africa, where Trump has embraced the cause of the white minority. The report accused the post-apartheid government of taking "substantially worrying steps towards land expropriation" of Afrikaners and other minorities. By contrast, the State Department said there were "no credible reports of significant human rights abuses" in El Salvador and noted a "historic low" in crime. President Nayib Bukele has unleashed a sweeping crackdown on crime in which rights groups say many innocent people have wound up in detention. Bukele took in migrants sent from the United States in Trump's mass deportation drive, some of whom have since reported mistreatment during nearly round-the-clock confinement in a maximum-security prison, which took place after the time covered by the report. Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who the Trump administration admits was wrongly deported, filed a lawsuit alleging severe beatings, sleep deprivation and inadequate nutrition in El Salvador's CECOT prison. The latest report trimmed down its section on Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. It acknowledged cases of arbitrary arrests and killings by Israel but said that authorities took "credible steps" to identify officials responsible. In a letter earlier this year, Democratic senators led by Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, voiced alarm over changes to the report that they said damaged US credibility. "When the United States conveniently wields human rights principles as a political cudgel against our adversaries, but does not apply those same standards to our allies, countries like China and Russia are quick to point out such hypocrisy, and American influence on the world stage drops precipitously," they wrote.


Int'l Business Times
a day ago
- Int'l Business Times
Ukraine Says Fighting 'Difficult' After Reports Of Russia's Rapid Gains
Ukraine said Tuesday it was engaged in "difficult" battles with Russian forces after Moscow had made rapid advances in a narrow but important section of the front line in the country's east. The gains came just days before US President Donald Trump was to meet Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska for talks on the war, the first meeting between a sitting US and Russian leader since 2021. The Ukrainian army said it was engaged in "heavy" battles with Russian forces attempting to penetrate its defences. "The situation is difficult and dynamic," it said in a statement. A map published by Ukrainian battlefield monitor DeepState, which has close ties with Ukraine's military, showed Russia had advanced around 10 kilometres (six miles) over around two days, deep into a narrow section of the eastern front line. The corridor -- now apparently under Russian control -- threatens the town of Dobropillia, a mining hub that civilians are fleeing and that has come under Russian drone attacks. It also further isolates the destroyed town of Kostiantynivka, one of the last large urban areas in the Donetsk region still held by Ukraine. The Institute for the Study of War, a US-based observatory, said Russia was sending small sabotage groups forwards. It said it was "premature" to call the Russian advances in around Dobropillia "an operational-level breakthrough". The military's Operational-Tactical Group Donetsk, which oversees parts of the front in the industrial region, also said Russia was probing Ukrainian lines with small sabotage groups, describing battles as "complex, unpleasant and dynamic". Trump has described his summit with Putin on Friday as a chance to check the Russian leader's ideas for ending the war. Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky warned ahead of the talks that Moscow was laying the groundwork for further attacks, after Trump said on Monday that both sides would have to swap territory for peace. European leaders have meanwhile sought to ensure respect for Kyiv's interests. "We see that the Russian army is not preparing to end the war. On the contrary, they are making movements that indicate preparations for new offensive operations," Zelensky said in a statement on social media. Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, has made costly but incremental gains across the sprawling front in recent months and claims to have annexed four Ukrainian regions while still fighting to control them. Ukrainian police meanwhile said that Russian attacks in the past hours had killed three people and wounded 12 others, including a child.