Inside Israel's expansionist ambitions

Djamilia Prange de Oliveira

DW

10/04/2026 

Israel has never officially defined its borders, but Israeli settlers and ministers are flirting with the biblical idea of extending them far beyond the current state. What's behind the concept of "Greater Israel"?

Daniela Weiss holds a laminated map of the Middle East with the title "The Promised Land" into the camera and says: "This is the promise of God to the patriarchs of the Jewish nation."

The map shows a Jewish state that encompasses parts of Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia – extending way beyond the 1949 armistice line, the so-called Green Line that defines Israel's territory according to international law.

"It's 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) – almost as big as the Sahara desert," Weiss adds.

Weiss – sometimes nicknamed "the godmother of the Israeli settler movement" – is referring to the idea of "Greater Israel", or in Hebrew "Eretz Israel HaShlema" – "Complete Israel." It's an expansionist concept popular among the Israeli far right that originates in the Bible.

Settler leader Daniela Weiss at a right-wing rally near the Gaza Strip in July 2025Image: Menahem Kahana/AFP

"For the proponents of the settlement policy like Bezalel Smotrich, the current finance minister, or Itamar Ben Gvir, the national security minister, it's not about making Israel greater than it actually should be," Gil Shohat, a historian and director of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Tel Aviv, tells DW.

"It's about completing the job. This means that the claim to the whole of historical Palestine or 'Eretz Israel', as they frame it, is a divine promise," he adds.

Some Israelis interpret "Complete" or "Greater Israel" to include the territory Israel seized in 1967: The Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) — the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza — as well as the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights in Syria and the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt that Israel returned decades ago. Others aim for the entire area promised in the Bible, stretching from the Egyptian Nile River to the Euphrates River, which flows through Turkey, Syria and Iraq.

Weiss' words are from a 2014 interview with Australian channel ABC News, but her ideas have only gained traction in Israeli politics since, as Israel continues its multi-front war across the Middle East.

'Greater Israel' in current politics

In March 2023, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich caused diplomatic turmoil when he spoke at a Paris memorial behind a podium featuring a "Greater Israel" map that included not only the territories Israel currently occupies but also Jordan.

A year later, he told the German-French channel ARTE that "the future of Jerusalem is to expand to Damascus," referring to the Syrian capital.

Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich holds a map of the settlement project known as E1 in the occupied West Bank in August 2025Image: Ohad Zwigenberg/AP Photo/picture alliance

In September 2024, when speaking about his plans for "the day after" the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented a map that fully annexed the West Bank.

In August 2025, he told the Israeli channel i24NEWS that he was "very much" connected to the vision of "Greater Israel," prompting Egypt and Jordan to demand clarifications from Israel.

And just a few months ago, in February 2026, the US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, told American talkshow host Tucker Carlson that it would be "fine" if Israel took over the entire Middle East.

The origins of 'Greater Israel'

In the biblical story (Genesis 15:18-21), God promises Abraham and his descendants a territory from the Nile to the Euphrates River. This vision was later picked up by some Jewish religious and nationalist thinkers and became a foundational element of Zionist ideology.

Zionist thinkers including Theodor Herzl and Ze'ev Jabotinsky referenced these biblical boundaries in their writings. Herzl called the idea of the biblical homeland "excellent" in his diaries, and Jabotinsky echoed this vision in his song "The East Bank of the Jordan". Each verse ends with the line: "The Jordan has two banks – this one is ours, and so is the other."

The song later became the theme of Jabotinsky's Revisionist Zionist youth movement, "Betar." Benjamin Netanyahu's father, Benzion Netanyahu, was active in Jabotinsky's Revisionist Zionist movement and served briefly as a close aide to Jabotinsky before his death.

Historian Gil Shohat says that for figures of Israel's far right, "Greater Israel" is a divine promise

Image: Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung

Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, also flirted with the idea of "Greater Israel" but ended up taking a more pragmatic approach. Before thinking about expansion, he tactically prioritized the establishment of a sovereign Jewish state. But he deliberately left Israel's borders undefined in the 1948 Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, creating strategic ambiguity for future expansion.

In a 1937 speech, he said: "The acceptance of partition does not commit us to renounce Transjordan: one does not demand from anybody to give up his vision. We shall accept a state in the boundaries fixed today, but the boundaries of Zionist aspirations are the concern of the Jewish people and no external factor will be able to limit them."

Expansion is already reality

Israel expanded its borders beyond what was proposed in the UN Partition Plan in 1947. The plan allocated about 56% of former British Mandatory Palestine to a future Jewish state, but after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Israel controlled about 77%.

Since occupying East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in 1967, Israel effectively controls nearly all of former Mandatory Palestine, in addition to the Golan Heights.

The international community does not recognize these areas as part of sovereign Israeli territory. But most Israelis do, says Shohat: "It's been almost 60 years since Israel occupied these areas. Even in textbooks of more liberal schools in Tel Aviv, the map of Israel includes the West Bank and Gaza."

Today, more than 700,000 Jewish Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank and in East Jerusalem, according to the United Nations. Estimates for the Golan Heights range between 23,000 and 31,000 settlers, along with some 20,000 Druze who remained there when Israel seized the area.

The UN views all Israeli settlements beyond the Green Line as a violation of international law, and in an advisory opinion of 2024, the International Court of Justice found the occupation to be illegal.

After the territorial expansion following the 1967 war, the idea of "Greater Israel" gained momentum. Today, it remains influential among some far-right Israeli religious and nationalist groups, but is not a mainstream position in Israeli society, says Shohat.

"The occupation of historical Palestine — so basically Israel, the West Bank and Gaza — is normalized. I do not yet see the trend of normalizing permanent settlements in southern Lebanon, or even in parts of Syria. But this does not mean that the situation in these regions cannot develop into permanent settlement if there is no meaningful international and internal opposition to it."

But even though it is not a mainstream position in Israeli society, the idea of territorial expansion has long permeated key parts of the Israeli government. In March 2026, Finance Minister Smotrich called for the annexation of southern Lebanon.

In a 2024 conference hosted by Nahala, Weiss' settler organization, Finance Minister Smotrich, Security Minister Ben Gvir and settler leader Weiss lobbied for the "voluntary emigration" of Palestinians from Gaza.

Itamar Ben Gvir celebrates Israel's new death penalty law for Palestinians on March 30, 2026 in the Knesset

Image: Oren Ben Hakoon/REUTERS

On stage, Ben Gvir said: "If we don't want another October 7, we need to go back home and control [Gaza]. We need to find a legal way to voluntarily emigrate [Palestinians] and impose death sentences on terrorists."

Two years later, Ben Gvir got a step closer to what he wanted. On March 30, the Knesset, Israel's parliament, approved a law imposing the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of fatal attacks.

Edited by: Kyra Levine and Sarah Hofmann

Djamilia Prange de Oliveira Reporter with a special focus on women's rights, culture, social policy and Brazil.

Recycling's next big thing — or big bluff?

Martin Kuebler

DW

10/04/2026 

An advanced recycling process claims it can handle hard-to-recycle plastics, like packaging. But critics say it's not worth the effort.

Image: James Arthur Gekiere/BELGA/picture alliance

In a brightly-lit room in Houston, Texas, environmental activist Malachi Key is searching through a pile of trash. He picks up a used chicken salad box, which like the other waste in the heap is being sent off for recycling, and slips a tracking device inside.

In 2022, the city introduced a program that promised to give up to 90% all plastics, even those that are hard to recycle, a new lease on life. It's a significant claim, given that the US average is less than 10%.

But Key said the scheme, which is a partnership with plastic industry leaders like ExxonMobil, LyondellBasell and Cyclyx International, is "too good to be true." Hence the tracking.

This is not the first time he and his fellow activists with environment nonprofit Air Alliance Houston have played sleuth. In the past year and a half, they've counted 14 times when their plastic trash was in fact moved to a third-party storage site and simply left there.

"The accumulated plastic was not actually being recycled," said Jen Hadayia, executive director of Air Alliance Houston. "Not in any way, shape or form in the way that the City of Houston had been saying."

Plastic production to double by 2050

The city's promised new program is an advanced process that can tackle unrecyclable single-use plastics, such as bread wrappers, juice pouches or yoghurt pots. Attracting millions of investment dollars from across the United States and Europe, the emerging industry says by using heat, enzymes or solvents, it can break stubborn plastics into smaller chemical compounds.

These are then turned back into their original chemical building blocks for use in making recycled plastics said to be indistinguishable from the virgin stuff — effectively meaning the material could be remade over and over again. Such is its apparent promise that the American Chemistry Council has heralded advanced recycling as "a breakthrough for reclaiming used plastics" which can "help lead to a circular economy."

Environmental, health risks with chemical recycling

Despite the advertised circularity, critics say the technology is not all it's cracked up to be.

Lee Bell, a technical adviser to the global nonprofit International Pollutants Elimination Network, points to the "something like 14,000 chemicals that are used as additives in plastics." He said more than a quarter are so hazardous they have to be stripped out and treated as waste, which is a flaw in the circular system.

"If they do manage to strip the polymers and monomers of these chemical additives and other contaminants, they generate enormous hazardous waste streams," he said.

That isn't the only issue. Veena Singla, a public health scientist affiliated with the University of California San Francisco, said the recycling facilities themselves can pose environmental and health risks.

"In the US, just three chemical recycling facilities generated more than 900 metric tons of hazardous waste in about three years," she said, adding that they are allowed to emit health-harming air pollutants linked to respiratory illness, cancer and disorders of the nervous system.

And despite the claim that the recycling industry is only creating new plastic for reuse, Singla said the plants are also making fuel to be burned. Which leaves less recycled material and a greater need to produce more virgin plastic.

The Houston Ship Channel serves as the hub for over 600 petrochemical plantsImage: David J. Phillip/AP Photo/picture alliance

Globally, we produce more than 400 million tons of new plastic every year, and that figure is expected to double or even triple by 2050. Ultimately, Lee said he thinks chemical recycling is largely "a propaganda exercise designed to divert attention away from increasing plastic production and plastic pollution that's occurring in the environment."

Chemical recycling struggles to get off the ground

The American Chemistry Council has said it believes the US could support 150 plants, which could result in $12.9 billion (€11.2 billion) of annual economic output.

But progress is slow. Bell said there were 11 operational facilities across America in 2023. Since then, four have shut down, either due to bankruptcy or the fact that they were not able to produce sufficient material to remain financially viable.

Of those currently still operating, just one is in the greater Houston area, which as a plastics production hub is home to hundreds of petrochemical companies. The facility is owned and operated by energy giant Exxon Mobil, which says it has already processed more than 68,000 metric tons of plastic waste into new products and fuels.

Still, Hadayia, of Air Alliance Houston, called it's a "false solution" for Houstians, who like the idea of companies coming up with a way to address some of their plastic waste.

Hayayia of Air Alliance Houston has called chemical recycling a 'false solution'

Image: Air Alliance Houston

But Exxon Mobil said activists clinging to a "narrow definition" of recycling is "propaganda" which "hurts the planet."

Plastic strategy a 'false solution,' say activists

It's still early days for the industry, but Bell sees a fundamental problem with the business model: it costs more to create new plastics from old, than to start fresh with raw materials — sourced from fossil fuels.

"You have to compete against virgin petrochemicals, plastics and when the price of oil is low, they cannot compete. It's simply not possible," he said.

Back in Houston, after a two-month wait, the activists could tell that the salad box containing the hidden tracker still hadn't been picked up. So it was no closer to being recycled.

The City of Houston declined to comment, saying it only collects from designated points across the city. At current count, there are just nine of them in a city of almost 2.5 million people.

While private companies involved in the recycling collaboration have previously said they are building a joint sorting center, for Hadayia, there is another solution.

"We didn't always rely on single-use plastic in the way we do now. We didn't always walk into a grocery store and all of our fruit was cut up for us and packaged in single use plastics," she said. "Bottom line, the true upstream solution to plastic waste is to reduce single-use plastic."

This article was based on an episode of Living Planet reported by investigative journalists Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor.

This investigation was supported by a grant from the Investigative Journalism for Europe fund (IJ4EU). It was coordinated by Ludovica Jona, with reporting by Staffan Dahllof, Yann Philippin, Begona Ramirez, Lorenzo Sangermano and Stefano Valentino. Sound design was by Jarek Zaba.

Edited by: Tamsin Walker

Martin Kuebler Senior editor and reporter based in Brussels, with a focus on environmental issues

Germany's Daimler Truck feels the pinch in US with sharp sales drop

10.04.2026, DPA

Photo: Bernd Weißbrod/dpa

A weak US market and declining bus sales have led to a further drop in Daimler Truck's sales in the first quarter, resulting in a 9% decline compared with the same period last year, the company reported on Friday.

The German commercial vehicle manufacturer said it sold 68,849 trucks and buses worldwide between January and March.

The US subsidiary recorded the sharpest fall. Sales dropped 25% to 29,432 vehicles in the first quarter.

Daimler Truck said the market is weakening as freight companies hold back on new orders. It cited uncertainty linked in part to US tariffs, which make future freight volumes harder to forecast.

By contrast, sales of Mercedes-Benz Trucks rose 13% to 34,486 vehicles. The company did not provide an explanation for the increase.

Bus sales fell by 20% to 4,972 vehicles between January and March. Daimler Truck did not comment on the reasons for the decline.

The company plans to provide more detailed financial and operational figures when it publishes its quarterly results on May 6.

Profit under pressure

Daimler Truck has been facing weaker performance overall. Full-year profit fell 34% to €2 billion ($2.3 billion) in 2025, hit by weak demand in North America and tariff-related uncertainty.

Revenue declined 9% to around €49.5 billion, while sales fell 8% to 422,510 vehicles.

To improve competitiveness, the company launched a cost-cutting programme called "Cost Down Europe" last year.

It aims to reduce costs in Europe by more than €1 billion by 2030 and includes plans to cut around 5,000 jobs in Germany, with the Mercedes-Benz brand most affected.

Additional savings measures are also planned in North America.

• Daimler Truck press release

Porsche sales drop 15% on weak China demand, US policy changes

10.04.2026, DPA

Photo: Marijan Murat/dpa

By Oliver Schmale, dpa

German sports carmaker Porsche reported on Friday a drop in sales in the first quarter of 2026, citing continued weak demand in China and North America.

The Volkswagen subsidiary sold 60,991 vehicles worldwide between January and March, the Stuttgart-based company said in a statement. That was 15% fewer than in the same period last year.

Porsche attributed the decline partly to the phase-out of the combustion-engine versions of the Cayman and Boxster, as well as the removal of tax incentives for electric and hybrid vehicles in the United States.

Chief sales officer Matthias Becker said first-quarter sales were "overall in line with expectations."

"In the coming months, our focus will be on the market launch of the all-electric Cayenne, which will be delivered to its first customers from summer onwards," Becker said.

Sharpest decline in China

Demand in China remained particularly weak. Wealthy consumers are spending less amid the country's ongoing property crisis, and Porsche has been cautious about offering discounts. Sales in China fell 21% to 7,519 vehicles.

In the key North American market, Porsche sold 18,344 vehicles between January and March, 11% fewer than a year earlier.

The company also reported declines in most other regions. Only in its home market of Germany did sales rise, increasing 4% to 7,778 vehicles.

In the rest of Europe, sales dropped 18% to 14,710 vehicles.

Among Porsche's model lines, the Cayenne remained the best seller, but sales fell 4% to 19,183 vehicles. A fully electric version of the SUV is due to be introduced gradually from the summer.

Sales of the 911 model sports car rose 22% to 13,889 vehicles.

Macan SUV sales slump

Porsche sold 18,209 Macan SUVs in total, including 10,130 combustion-engine models.

The company said these will continue to be sold alongside the electric version in most markets outside the European Union until production ends this summer. The fully electric Macan accounted for 8,079 vehicles.

Overall, Macan sales fell 23% compared with the same quarter last year. Porsche cited slower-than-expected adoption of electric vehicles, the launch of the electric Macan in the same period last year, and the end of US tax incentives for electric and hybrid cars.

Porsche a burden for VW Group

For the Volkswagen Group, Porsche – once considered a major profit driver – has recently become more of a burden.

Net profit fell sharply last year, dropping 91.4% to €310 million (about $362.3 million). In 2024, profit had still been nearly €3.6 billion. Revenue declined by almost a tenth to around €36.3 billion.

A major factor was a strategic shift initiated by former Porsche chief executive Oliver Blume just over a year ago, after it became clear that the company's ambitious electric vehicle targets were unlikely to be met.

Blume, who has focused solely on leading Volkswagen since the start of this year, said at the time that the transition to electric mobility had progressed significantly more slowly in many markets than he and many experts expected just a few years ago.

In 2025, about 22% of Porsche vehicles sold worldwide were fully electric.

• Porsche press release

Guinea-Bissau on edge after activist's killing

Antonio Cascais

DW

April 9, 2026

The death of activist Vigario Luis Balanta, found with signs of extreme violence, has triggered protests and accusations against Guinea-Bissau's military rulers, raising concerns over repression and media freedom.

Several hundred people gathered in Bissau after Balanta's funeral

Image: DW


At the end of March, residents discovered a lifeless body in a remote, swampy area about 30 kilometers (19 miles) outside Bissau, the capital of Guinea-Bissau.

It was "covered in blood," "wounded all over with a bladed weapon" and there were "two bullet holes in the head," a witness told the AFP news agency.

The victim was Vigario Luis Balanta, a 35-year-old teacher and a prominent critic of Guinea-Bissau's military leadership that had seized power in a coup four months earlier, ousting outgoing President Umaro Sissoco Embalo.

Balanta was a leading figure in the civil society movement Po di Terra (Dust of the Earth) who, according to Radio France Internationale (RFI), had previously been reported missing before being released.

In late March, he was kidnapped in the Pilun district of Bissau. Two days later, his body was discovered. The United Nations called it a "brutal killing."

The body of the 35-year-old activist was found in the rice fields of Ndam Lero, just outside Bissau [FILE: November 2025]Image: DW

In Balanta's last public interview with DW in January, he remained defiant.

"We will keep going," he said. "We have to act strategically and mobilize the people."

He described Po di Terra as a movement rooted in love for the country and a determination to defend it.

"Despite the fear in the population, support is strong," Balanta told DW.

Accusations against military-linked forces

Civil society groups, including Po di Terra and the Bissau-Guinean League of Human Rights, have accused the transitional military regime — or forces aligned with it — of orchestrating Balanta's killing.

Seif Magango, spokesperson for the UN human rights office (OHCHR), said in a statement that Balanta's death "comes amid a progressive reduction of civic and democratic space, which has accelerated in Guinea-Bissau since the November 2025 coup."

"Members of the opposition and human rights defenders have been arbitrarily detained, assaulted, harassed and intimidated, demonstrations dispersed and radio stations suspended," Magango added.

Activist Sumaila Jalo described the killing as a warning to all who oppose the regime.

"We are afraid, but we will not be silent. The fight for justice continues," he told DW.

The military government condemned the killing, calling it a crime "under particularly violent circumstances" and pledging to investigate thoroughly, holding both the perpetrators and their potential backers accountable. The pledge has been met with skepticism from critics.

Funeral protest highlights growing public anger

Balanta's funeral in early April became a protest against the military rulers. Hundreds gathered at Antula Cemetery in Bissau, chanting: "We are all Vigario," "We want justice," and "Down with the dictatorship."

The Guinean diaspora also organized solidarity demonstrations, including in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, calling for accountability.

Political tensions have risen after the government ordered private radio stations in Bissau to close, citing unpaid licensing fees of 5 million CFA francs (around $9,000). While broadcasts resumed after talks with Prime Minister Braima Camar, negotiations continue, leaving the state of press freedom uncertain.

At the same time, residents report severe fuel shortages, with long lines outside gas stations. The government denies there is a shortage.

The prime minister has publicly warned against "misinformation," and observers say some citizens reporting shortages have faced intimidation. Tensions in Bissau remain high.

Critics accuse former Embalo of oppressing opposition figures, journalists and rights activists [FILE: February 26, 2025]Image: Kristina Kormilitsyna/Sputnik/REUTERS

The military under General Horta N'Tam, has announced plans to hold presidential and legislative elections in December and return to civilian rule.

Former President Embalo, whose current whereabouts are unknown, has been accused by opposition figures and observers of orchestrating the coup to avoid losing the election and stepping down.

Guinean economist and diplomat Carlos Lopes said several scenarios are possible, including that Embalo may have initiated the coup himself but now has less control over the junta than he intended.

Such dynamics are not unusual: "Revolutions often consume their own children — especially in Guinea-Bissau," Lopes said.

This article was originally published in German.




Antonio Cascais Award-winning documentary filmmaker and investigative journalist

Zambia: Is the US trading HIV treatment for resources?

Amy Stockdale

DW

10/04/2026

The US is reportedly leveraging health aid to gain access to Zambia's critical minerals. Millions depend on US funding for HIV, tuberculosis and malaria treatment. Yet Zambia is hesitant to agree

Zambia is the second largest copper producer in Africa, and the US is seeking greater access to the country's mineral resources

Image: Damian Gillie/Construction Photography/Photosh/picture alliance

More than a million people in Zambia are living with HIV, one of several African countries where the United States' President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program has been a cornerstone for the financing of life-saving medical treatment for more than two decades.

During this time, Zambia has made significant progress in battling the disease, with new HIV infections dropping from 63,000 to 30,000 between 2010 and 2025, according to the United Nations. But the southern African nation is reportedly reluctant to sign a new deal with the US, which ties this critical lifeline to demands for greater access to its critical minerals.

In late March, The New York Times reported it had obtained a memo prepared for Secretary of State Marco Rubio, which outlined how the US could withdraw health support "on a massive scale" to force Zambia and other countries to accept US terms.

From aid distribution to bilateral agreements

After dismantling USAID, the world's largest foreign aid agency, last year, the Trump administration has sought to replace decades of aid with new bilateral deals, called Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs), as part of the America First Global Health Strategy.

In a written statement to DW, the US State Department said it sought to partner "with select countries" to "transition from a foreign assistance paradigm to an investment and growth paradigm."

Details on many remain undisclosed, but the State Department said MOUs represented over $20.6 billion (€17.6 billion) in new health funding to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. Across Africa, 23 countries have so far signed bilateral deals with the US.

USAID officially shut down in July 2025, and its closure was felt significantly in Africa's health sector

Image: Privilege Musvanhiri/DW

But two countries are pushing back: Zimbabwe and Zambia.

"[The Trump administration is] fundamentally adopting a radically different approach to this than the US government has used in the past," said Conor Savoy, a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development and formerly a foreign policy engagement lead at USAID.

US pressures African countries to accept health deals

Zimbabwe has walked away from negotiations, calling US demands on data and biological samples "lopsided" and an "intolerable infringement on sovereignty."

Kenya's government accepted a deal. However, activists with similar data privacy concerns have taken it to court.

For months, the US has been trying to reach a deal with Zambia. In February, its government said the American proposal did not align with the country's interests. The US is proposing $1 billion in health funding over five years, less than half of what Zambia received before Trump took office.

Zambia must also commit $340 million in new health spending, and the US has demanded biological and specimen data for 25 years. It has reportedly until May to sign or lose funding.

Kenya's bilateral health deal with US hits snags in court  06:14

Zambia has already increased its own health contributions, including some HIV programs. However, scaling up health spending cannot happen overnight, according to Savoy.

"Their systems are simply not at a place where they can take on the entire challenge of health funding," he told DW.

Another reported demand from the US is access to Zambia's critical minerals. The country has significant reserves of nickel and cobalt, and is one of the world's largest copper producers.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration launched Project Vault, aiming to counter China's dominance in rare earth minerals. But reports of trading health aid for minerals is concerning to experts.

"We're playing with fire here ultimately and it could further erode confidence and credit and our credibility on the continent," said Savoy.

Zimbabwe takes a big shot toward an HIV-free future  02:41

HealthGAP, a health advocacy organization working in Zambia, reported that activists are "demanding a rejection of deals conditioning funding access to mining."
Which countries have agreed to US mineral deals?

Many African nations have already signed MOUs with the US. "There are countries that want these types of investments, and they're going to be open to them," said Savoy.

It's difficult to confirm whether critical minerals have been a condition in other deals. For instance, the Democratic Republic of Congo has signed both a health agreement and a separate minerals deal with the US.

Some countries may welcome mineral agreements with the US.

"A lot of countries in the region have tried to look at diversifying away from China," Savoy said. But he argued health and economic deals with the US should be kept separate.

"This effort, especially in Zambia, could seriously undermine our credibility. At the end of the day we're doing essentially what the US government has accused the Chinese of doing for the past two decades in Africa."

Concerns increase for Zambian HIV patients

If a deal is not reached and the US does reduce its financial support on "a massive scale," the effects could be felt quickly.

Oxfam recently warned the deals are "effectively threatening the health and well-being of thousands by turning humanitarian assistance into a bargaining chip."

For 1.3 million Zambians that could mean losing daily life-saving HIV treatment, which had helped cut AIDS-related deaths in the country by over 70% in the last 15 years.

Zambia's health ministry was contacted for this article, but had not responded at the time of publishing.

Edited by: Cai Nebe

Amy Stockdale Author and multimedia journalist from Northern Ireland.

OECD: Development aid plummets in 2025 amid USAID gutting

Mark Hallam 

DW with AFP, dpa, KNA, Reuters

09/04/2026 

International development aid spending fell by more than one-fifth in real terms last year, the biggest dip on record. The US slashing its outlay by more than half set the tone, making Germany the largest overall donor.

Expressed as a share of its overall economic clout, the US is now the least generous aid provider in the 34-member Development Assistance Commitee, according to OECD data

Image: Luis Tato/AFP/Getty Images

International development aid fell by 23% in real terms in 2025 to the lowest levels since 2015, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said on Thursday.

Preliminary data pointed to the largest dip in donations from members and associates of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) since records began.

For the first time on record, all five of the top international providers reduced their input.

The reduction was spearheaded by the world's richest country, the US, slashing its official development assistance spending by 56.9%, leaving Germany as the world's largest donor by default, even as it missed its own targets for international aid once again.

Refugee camps in Kenya feel impact of Donald Trump's cuts  03:17

US now the least generous donor relative to economic clout

Some of the core statistics on official development aid spending from the 34 DAC members and other major countries were as follows:

Total ODA spending from the 34 members stood at $174.3 billion (roughly €148 billion)
That equates to just 0.26% of these countries' gross national income (GNI)
Only four countries — Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway and Sweden — met the UN target of spending 0.7% of GNI on aid
All five of the top donors — Germany, the US, the UK, Japan and France — reduced their contributions in 2025
Together, these countries accounted for 95.7% of the overall reduction
The US alone drove three-quarters of the overall decline as Donald Trump took a hatchet to USAID on his return to the White House
Washington's 56.9% reduction in aid spending was the largest by any country on record
This makes the US now the least generous donor as a share of the size of its economy in the entire DAC, donating 0.09% of GNI
Average donations across members equated to 0.26% of GNI, barely one-third of the UN target
Other bilateral aid providers outside the DAC — particularly Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar — are becoming increasingly meaningful donors as European and US input declines

What does the USAID pullback mean for young Africans? 26:03

What did the OECD say about the reductions?

"It's deeply concerning to see this huge drop in ODA in 2025, due to dramatic cuts among the very top donors," OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann said. "In this challenging environment, the significant decline in official development assistance highlights the need to maximise the impact of available resources, and to use them more effectively to unlock new sources of investment."

Carsten Staur, the chair of the ​OECD assistance committee told a news briefing on Thursday that "the message is extremely sombre."

The organization also forecasts a further, if more modest, decline of 5.8% in real terms in 2026. It said the atmosphere of sharp and continuing declines presented an "enormous shock to the system."

What the end of USAID means — Global Us 26:04

Germany again misses spending target, but nevertheless becomes largest overall donor amid US cuts

Germany's ODA contributions shrank from 0.68% of GNI in 2024 to 0.56%, at a total of $29.09 billion. If you exclude refugee assistance funding spent inside Germany, that figure falls further to 0.46%, based on Development Ministry figures.

Yet still Germany became the largest overall donor in the world for the first time in history as the US, with an economy roughly six times the size of Germany's, slashed its spending.

The US remains the second largest donor in overall terms, with EU institutions next in line and the UK a fairly distant fourth.

Aid organizations criticized the government in Berlin while security expert Philipp Rotmann at the Global Public Policy Institute said the reductions were "not in Germany's security interests" given the "deadly gap" left by the US pullout, from which Russia and China would seek to profit geopolitically.

"The world's on fire and Germany continues to cut," Oxfam Germany chairwoman Charlotte Becker said, saying the reductions had life-threatening consequences.

Church charities like Brot für die Welt, Misereor, Caritas International and Diakonie issued a joint statement decrying a "dangerous downward spiral" in spending.

Kofler: German aid can't fill gap left by US cuts 05:03

Ukraine aid rises thanks to EU input, dominates overall outlay

Net bilateral aid to wartorn Ukraine from DAV members fell by 38.2% last year, according to OECD figures. This was driven by a sharp US dip as Trump returned to the White House, even as 23 countries increased bilateral contributions.

However, because of new support via EU institutions in Brussels rather than member states, overall donations to Ukraine totaled $44.9 billion, an 18.7% increase on 2024 that bucked the overall trend and "the largest volume of net ODA to any single recipient in any year on record," the OECD said.

"This amount was larger than DAC members' combined bilateral ODA to all less developed countries ($28.1 billion) and all countries in sub-Saharan Africa ($29.2 billion)," it said.

The reduction in donations was most sharp in bilateral development assistance, falling 26.4%. Multilateral ODA spending levels fell by 12.7%. The volume of bilateral development grants fell much more sharply (down 29.3%) than bilateral spending on loans (down 10.3%).

US: Pentagon must restore journalists' access, judge says

Rana Taha 

DW with AP, Reuters

10/04/2026

A federal judge has said the US Defense Department has not complied with orders to allow journalists access to the Pentagon. New rules have prevented reporters from entering the building without an escort.

The Pentagon is defying a court order that required it to restore access to credentialed reporters, a US judge ruled on Thursday.

US District Judge Paul Friedman said the Pentagon must comply with his order and restore reporters' access to the US Defense Department.

Why are Pentagon reporters denied access?

In October 2025, the Pentagon under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said journalists could be deemed security risks and thus have their press badges revoked if they solicited unauthorized military personnel to disclose classified, and in some cases unclassified, information.

Only one of 56 news outlets in the Pentagon Press Association agreed to sign an acknowledgment of the new policy, with the rest having to hand in their press passes and report on the Pentagon from outside the facility.

The New York Times led a lawsuit challenging the new policy, and Friedman ruled in the journalists' favor on March 20, saying the policy violated protections for news gathered and due process in the US Constitution.

He required the immediate restoration of reporters' access.

The Pentagon then released a new "interim" policy that bars reporters with press passes from entering the building without an escort, according to The New York Times. It also governs when reporters can offer anonymity to a source, as well as preserving other rules that the court had rejected.

What did the judge say about the Pentagon's policies?

The Pentagon had denied violating Friedman's prior order in a March court filing, saying it was "careful to address all ​of the legal defects that the court perceived in the prior policy."

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell has said the administration would appeal Friedman's March 20 decision.

Parnell said in a social media post that the department has complied with the judge's orders, reinstating journalists' credentials and issuing "a materially revised policy that addressed every concern" identified by the judge.

But on Thursday, Friedman said that the access the Pentagon made available to permit holders "is not even close to as meaningful as the broad access" they previously had.

"The Department cannot simply reinstate an unlawful policy under the guise of taking 'new' action and expect the Court to look the other way," Friedman wrote in ​his ruling. The judge called the Pentagon's actions a "blatant attempt to circumvent a lawful order of the Court."

He also argued that the US military operations in Venezuela and Iran make the need for public access to information regarding government activities all the more pressing.

Lufthansa cabin crew begin strike, hundreds of flights cancelled

10.04.2026, 04:08 Uhr

Photo: Lando Hass/dpa

By Christian Ebner, dpa

Cabin crew at German airline Lufthansa began a strike at midnight, a spokeswoman for the UFO union has confirmed.

Around 20,000 flight attendants have been called on to stay off work until 10 pm (2000 GMT) on Friday.

The UFO union called the strike in an effort to break deadlocked wage negotiations with Lufthansa's core airline and its regional subsidiary Lufthansa CityLine, which is also affected by the strike.

It marks the third major walkout this year at Germany's largest airline, following two rounds of pilot strikes.

Lufthansa has announced contingency measures but had already cancelled hundreds of flights in advance.

At Frankfurt, the airline's largest hub, around 75% of roughly 350 planned Lufthansa departures were cancelled, according to airport schedules. Landings were similarly affected.

Officially, only departures in Germany are affected, including at the hubs in Munich and Frankfurt and at other airports such as Leipzig/Halle, Berlin and Stuttgart.

However, due to aircraft being out of position at foreign destinations, many return flights for Easter holiday travellers are also expected to be cancelled.

Lufthansa advised passengers to check their flight status before travelling, saying tickets can be rebooked or refunded. In cases of delays of more than three hours, passengers are entitled to compensation. The airline must also provide alternative transport, as well as meals and accommodation where necessary.

The strike follows a warning strike and a union ballot that showed strong support among Lufthansa cabin crew for industrial action. The UFO union said the dispute centres on stalled talks over Lufthansa's collective agreement and the company's refusal to negotiate a social plan for Lufthansa CityLine.

Lufthansa cabin crew begin strike

Rana Taha 

DW with dpa

10/04/2026

Hundreds of flights have been canceled as cabin crew members walk out. This is Lufthansa's third major strike this year.

Cabin crew at German flag carrier Lufthansa walked off of their jobs on Friday, with a strike that began at midnight (2200 Thursday GMT) and that will affect hundreds of flights.

Some 20,000 flight attendants have been called to strike until 10 p.m. on Friday.

The UFO trade union called a one-day strike for its members both with Lufthansa and its Cityline regional subsidiary, as wage negotiations continue to stall.

The walkout is Lufthansa's third major one this year. It follows two rounds of pilot strikes.
How is the strike expected to affect travel?

Lufthansa, Germany's largest airline, canceled hundreds of flights in advance of the strike, as it struggles to mitigate the impact of the walkout.

Cancellations are expected to hit the hubs in Munich and Frankfurt, as well as other airports, including Leipzig/Halle, Berlin and Stuttgart.

At its largest hub in Frankfurt, nearly 75% of some 350 scheduled Lufthansa departures were canceled.

Though the strike is only meant to affect departures in Germany, it is expected to lead to the cancellation of several return flights for Easter holiday travelers.

The airline advised its passengers to check the status of their flights before heading to the airport.

Hundreds of flights were canceledImage: Bodo Marks/dpa/picture alliance

Lufthansa is struggling in negotiations not just with the UFO cabin crew union but also the pilots' trade union Vereinigung Cockpit.

The two organizations joined forces in early February in a bid to maximize the impact of their strike, leading to major disruptions. The pilots then went on strike for another two days in mid-March.

Edited by: Sean Sinico

Paving the way: Rome Colosseum renovation reveals structures hidden for centuries

By Tokunbo Salako

Published on 09/04/2026 -EURONEWS

Visitors to Rome's Colosseum now have a new chance to step back into history thanks to a renovation project that's unearthed several entrance columns that have been buried for hundreds of years.

Italy’s most iconic landmark has been given a remarkable new look.

The Colosseum in Rome has undergone a major restoration, revealing parts of its original structure that have been hidden for centuries.

New travertine marble blocks have been installed outside the arena, marking where grand entrance columns once stood.

The project restores the monument’s perimeter and highlights details long buried underground, including original entrance numbers that guided spectators to their seats.

People walk in the new outdoor space created with travertine marble around the Colosseum during its inauguration in Rome, March 17, 2026 AP Photo/Andrew Medichini

In ancient times, each arch, except those located along the major and minor axes, was marked with a number engraved on top of the arch, just below the first cornice of the façade, to facilitate identification of the entrances.

Stefano Boeri, the architect of the restoration project said the idea from the start was to give visitors a real sense of the monument's proportions: "We have rebuilt the real perimeter, the crepidine (pavement) of the Colosseum, and at the same time the dimension of all the parts of the fornici (arches), which were covered by ground. That had been covered for centuries.”

Related

The work of controlling and restoring the monument’s original levels not only reinstated the legibility of the Flavian Amphitheatre’s footprint and its geometric base, but also offered the opportunity to reconsider the stormwater drainage system.

The result is a public space that is both hydraulically organised and more accessible for visitors with water management also an integral part of the paving design.

The new outdoor space created with travertine marble around the Colosseum during its inauguration in Rome, Tuesday, March 17, 2026 AP Photo/Andrew Medichini

With its past more visible than ever, visitors can experience a clearer picture of life in ancient Rom

“We wanted to restore some of the missing sections of the entry corridors for the public. The two missing sections of the corridors of the Flavian Amphitheater, which collapsed starting in the 6th century AD for various reasons, the main one being that the ground in this area is the most unstable,” explained Alfonsina Russo, archaeologist and representative of the Italian ministry of cultural heritage.

The Colosseum remains Italy’s most popular tourist attraction, drawing millions of visitors every year.