"In the entire film industry, whoever works without aligning with us, or works with Salman Khan, will be killed."

This warning was delivered in an audio message by presumed attackers on Indian actor Tiger Shroff in Mumbai earlier this month, as they claimed responsibility for the shooting.

The apparent perpetrators said they were connected to Lawrence Bishnoi, a student-politician-turned-gangster who has been in prison since 2014. Notably, police have not confirmed the gang's involvement.

The shots fired at Shroff, which injured his driver, were only the latest in a string of attacks targeting prominent figures from the Mumbai-based film industry, popularly known as "Bollywood".

Since 2022, gunmen fired shots at actor Salman Khan's apartment and at the home of filmmaker Rohit Shetty in Mumbai, as well as actor Disha Patani's family home in northern India. Actor Ranveer Singh also reportedly received an extortion demand of nearly $1.1 million (around €980,000).

The attacks have spread to the other side of the globe, with a cafe owned by comedian Kapil Sharma in Surrey, Canada, also hit three times.

For an industry that once lived in the shadow of organized crime, the attacks have revived old fears, harking back to the crime bosses of the 1990s. But experts say the threat facing Bollywood today looks very different from the one it faced three decades ago.

When the underworld ruled Bollywood

In the 1990s, Mumbai's underworld was deeply entangled with the Hindi film industry.

"The mafia was always fascinated with the movie industry," said S. Hussain Zaidi, crime journalist and author of "Dongri to Dubai: Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia," who has covered organized crime in the city for over three decades.

Gangsters like Dawood Ibrahim, Abu Salem and Chhota Shakeel "were totally obsessed" with Bollywood, he told DW, much like mafiosi who sought a foothold in Hollywood.

To the gangsters, films offered glitz and glamor, but also a way to launder their profits. They invested in films "so that they could control the industry and have a legitimate way of making money," Zaidi added.

When producers didn't cooperate, the consequences could be fatal. In 1997, music mogul Gulshan Kumar, founder of the label T-Series, was shot dead. In 2000, filmmaker Rakesh Roshan, father of Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan, was shot and wounded.

Mumbai's streets were "made red with blood" in 1998, Zaidi said, describing the year as the pinnacle of gang killings. 

D. Sivanandhan, the former Police Commissioner of Mumbai, who led the crackdown, says 101 businessmen were shot dead in 1998 alone, or one "every third day," mostly over unpaid extortion demands. 

Police efforts were reinforced by a tough new organized crime law passed in 1999, which Sivanandhan calls the "ultimate weapon." Security forces used electronic surveillance and preventive detention, and seized some 2,500 illegal weapons. 

"A few encounters also happened, but that is not a policy nor a strategy,” he told DW, referring to police shootouts.

By the early 2000s, the gangs' hold had been broken, and a new Mumbai seemed to be emerging.

A gang run from a prison cell

The man believed to be behind the latest wave of attacks is not from Mumbai.

Bishnoi, 33, comes from a landowning family in the northern state of Punjab and was studying in Chandigarh when he was drawn into violent student politics. Then, he was arrested, incarcerated and eventually turned to crime, says journalist Jupinderjit Singh, author of "Gangs of Punjab."

"He was introduced to the University of Crime through the jail," Singh told DW.

Bishnoi went on to build what Singh describes as one of the first criminal syndicates spanning several northern Indian states. Investigators say he still directs operations from prison using concealed phones and messaging apps.

Currently, Bishnoi is held in a jail in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat.

His network stretches beyond India's borders. In September 2025, Canada designated the Bishnoi gang a terrorist entity. Last month, the FBI added Satinderjeet Singh, popularly known as Goldy Brar, to its Ten Most Wanted list, offering up to $1 million for information leading to his arrest. US prosecutors described him as the alleged leader of Bishnoi's group in North America.

While Bishnoi comes from an affluent landowning family, his shooters are mostly poor. The gang usually recruits them online.

"There are so many youngsters who want to do something… they are just pulled by the lore attached to Lawrence Bishnoi," Singh explained. "Recruiting is no big issue… They offer money, protection, weapons."

Why target film stars?

For Bishnoi, it seems personal.

In 1998, Salman Khan was accused of killing a blackbuck, an antelope revered by Bishnoi's community. Bishnoi vowed revenge, and many of the attacks targeted people close to the actor, including the 2024 killing of politician Baba Siddique, which police have linked to the gang.

Singh sees the feud as a bid for respectability. Criminals "always try to find something that makes them a moral guardian," he says, and this case was Bishnoi's "chance to redeem himself."

But money and intimidation matter too.

"Bollywood has a lot of money," Singh added, pointing that the previous generation of gangsters was no longer in position to take advantage.

"With Dawood Ibrahim and his counterparts away, there was a vacuum, and Lawrence Bishnoi is trying to exploit that."

Sivanandhan explained the old Mumbai gangs ran a whole "basket" of illegal businesses, from smuggling to protection rackets and cricket match-fixing. Their members were "local boys," while the Bishnoi gang has “nothing to do with Mumbai,” he added. It targets Bollywood because the industry is "loaded with money" and a "soft underbelly."

"They are using Bollywood as an ATM," he told DW. "Insert a card and collect your money."

Meanwhile, Zaidi sees the attacks mainly as publicity. "It's a way to grab headlines," he told DW. Within hours of the recent attack on Shroff, someone claimed on social media that he was targeted for being close to Khan, a logic Zaidi called "absolutely illogical and absurd."

But publicity is useful to gangs that live off extortion. "The base material of extortion is: create fear," a security professional responsible for the protection of several Bollywood stars, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, told DW.

Is Bollywood under siege?

Still, experts say its hard to argue that the ongoing violence is comparable to the 1990s crime wave.

"I won't say resurgence, because that would be a bit of an exaggeration," Zaidi said. In the 1990s, several rival gangs fought for control of Mumbai. Today, other than Bishnoi's faction, other gangs are not considered active in Mumbai.

The film industry is also not paying up the way it once did, because the shift to digital payments has made large cash transactions hard to hide, he added.

Sivanandhan disagrees. The shootings at walls and gates, followed by quick claims on social media, are "all aimed at collecting… extortion money," he said. In his view, "cash-rich Bollywood would be coughing up so much, which is enough to run an army of people."

At any case, the fear remains real.

And even if violence is not as prevalent, hundreds of thousands of people rely on the Mumbai film industry for their livelihoods.

"If the fear of the underworld continues, leading names may be forced to leave Mumbai," the All Indian Cine Workers Association (AICWA) President Suresh Shyamlal Gupta wrote to Home Minister Amit Shah.

"Mumbai will not be allowed to go back to the underworld days of the 1990s, and Bollywood will not be allowed to work in the shadow of fear," Gupta wrote.

With security forces seemingly on the back foot, gangsters are likely to continue their campaign.

Several Bollywood stars have already stepped up their security.

Edited by: Darko Janjevic

South Korea's relationship with the North, always strained, seems to be going through a particularly hostile patch in recent weeks.

Last month, Seoul accused North Korea of planting a mine on the southern side of the heavily fortified border. The device exploded, injuring three South Korean soldiers. Pyongyang refused to apologize and insisted this was a false-flag incident designed to tarnish the isolated nation. The North Korean regime has since conducted multiple weapons tests, held its first-ever exhibition of military drones attended by Kim Jong Un, brought up self-propelled artillery units to the border and started preparing loudspeaker systems that will blast propaganda into the South.

On Thursday, North Korea also fired around 10 short-range ballistic missiles towards the Sea of Japan just before a scheduled visit to South Korea by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

On top of South Korea's issues with its arch rival, many in Seoul are growing increasingly wary of their most important ally, the United States. South Korean politicians are worried that the US could push for a diplomatic breakthrough with North Korea at the cost of ignoring South Korea's security, or even leave it exposed to Pyongyang's nuclear arsenal.

Who gets a voice on South Korea's future?

US President Donald Trump famously claimed he and Kim Jong Un "fell in love" during Trump's first term. More recently, Trump has indicated he would like to resume talks . There have been suggestions that a meeting could take place on November 18 in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, where Trump is expected to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

The North Korean side has made no official response to Washington's hints, although South Korea's National Intelligence Service informed a closed-door meeting of Seoul's intelligence committee on Thursday that Kim Jong Un discussed the possibility of meeting Trump when he met with senior members of China's politburo in Dandong on Saturday. 

Seoul's fears were also fueled by the US proposing three-way talks with Russia and China on the fate of Ukraine without inviting a representative of Kyiv to attend. The worry in Seoul is that President Donald Trump may conduct a similar bypass manoeuvre on the Korean Peninsula.

Washington-Seoul relationship shaken by tariffs, funding disputes

"Right now, there is a problem of trust between the two governments," said Kim Sang-woo, a former politician with the left-leaning South Korean Congress for New Politics and now a member of the board of the Kim Dae-jung Peace Foundation.

A security and trade relationship that was previously considered secure has been rocked by tariffs, trade restrictions and demands from Washington that the South pay more for the US troops stationed in the country, Kim told DW.

President Lee's diplomats have lost access to key decision-making personnel in this White House, he added.

"I do not think this US administration is thinking long-term in the relationship with South Korea," Kim said. "They do not see South Korea as a part of their wider national security network and I do not think they are listening to experts on the importance of allies in the region."

"I also think that Trump is eager to meet with Kim because of his personal quest to obtain a Nobel Peace Prize."

Trump's widely publicized efforts to secure a Nobel have been thwarted so far. However, this might change if Trump somehow manages to formally end the Korean War that was put on hold by the 1953 armistice.

South Korea eyeing its own nuclear deterrent

"The most serious concern is that the US recognizes Pyongyang as a nuclear power, which would legitimize the North's program and undermine efforts to convince it to abolish its nuclear weapons as well as the broader non-proliferation system," said Lim Eun-jung, a professor of international studies at Kongju National University.

In parallel, she said, there are fears that Trump could reach an agreement with North Korea that requires it to scrap its long-range nuclear missiles — those that are capable of hitting targets in the United States — but permits it to retain short-range weapons that can still easily reach South Korea and Japan.  

That would raise questions about the US commitment to defend South Korea in case of a nuclear attack. That uncertainty, in turn, is likely to give credence to voices arguing that South Korea needs to develop its own nuclear deterrent.

"For years, we have depended on US extended deterrence guarantees under the nuclear umbrella, but this US administration is unpredictable and there are more and more people asking why we don't just go it alone," Lim told DW.

"Virtually, all our neighbors have nuclear weapons, and while no-one wants the dominoes to start falling, it could happen." 

Merz says Korean security affects Europe

The latest escalation between Seoul and Pyongyang comes amid repeated attempts by South Korean President Lee to improve communication with Pyongyang. The perceived outreach has irritated South Korea's European allies, who are angry over North Korea deploying soldiers and supplying munition and missiles to help Russia in the Ukraine war.

Moscow is believed to be repaying Pyongyang's support with money, military technology and security guarantees.

During his visit to South Korea, Germany's Merz pointed out that "Korea's security affects Europe's security. And Europe's security also affects the security of Korea."

"The world is small — even in war," Merz added.

South Korea needs allies

Berlin, just like Seoul, has been disoriented by the Trump administration turning hostile on many of its allies while seeking reproachment with geopolitical rivals such as Russia and China. During his Asia tour, Merz pushed for an alliance of middle powers to protect free trade and oppose "unilateralism, autocratic power politics and violations of international law."

"The fact remains that the United States is shifting its foreign policy, ⁠its foreign economic ​policy, and redefining its interests. As they do so, we must do the same," he said in South Korea.

It was not clear if Seoul will respond to Merz's appeal by moving closer to the European Union. At the moment, however, it seems apparent that the South Korean government is struggling to communicate with either North Korea or the US.

"It is a very difficult situation," said Kim Sang-woo. "There is no trust and no connections and that, to me, is very worrisome."

A legal aid group for Indigenous women in Guatemala, a movement of village mothers in rural India, and a Malian entrepreneur who restores farmland have won this year's UN SDG Action Awards.

The winners were announced at the ninth Heroes of Tomorrow awards ceremony in Rome, Italy, run by the UN SDG Action Campaign. They were chosen from more than 7,000 entries from 190 countries.

Nine finalists were shortlisted for three categories: resilience, creativity and changemaker.

Justice for Maya women

The Resilience Award went to the Women's Justice Initiative. Many indigenous women in Guatemala face high rates of violence, poverty and discrimination, made worse by language barriers and a lack of access to information. The initiative helps women and girls get access to justice and lead change in their communities. According to the organization, more than 16,000 women and girls have participated.

"I accept the UN SDG Action Award in the honour of the Maya Kaqchikel women and girls in Guatemala who are building a more just future for their communities. Ending violence against women requires all of us. Only together, we can build a future where every woman and girl lives with dignity and realizes her full potential," said Viviana Patal, the initiative's legal director.

Keeping girls in school in India

The Creativity Award was given to Mothers of Courage, a grassroots campaign that aims to keep girls in education in rural India. Its organizers say more than 1.2 million people have joined and pledged to keep their daughters in education and to prevent early marriage.

"This award today belongs to all the mothers in those villages, all the women leaders, who are working hard to change the destinies of their daughters and their daughters-in-law," said Khushboo Awasthi, Mothers of Courage's chief curator.

"Together, let's create a world where no girl ever has to negotiate for her right to dream and to aspire and to thrive."

Trees and livelihoods in Mali

The Changemaker Award when to Malian entrepreneur Rokiatou Traore. Her organization, Herou Alliance, helps women and small farmers bring worn-out land back to life by planting trees alongside their crops. The trees also help farmers generate extra revenue, allowing them to sell products from moringa and other valuable trees.

"Receiving this award means a lot to me. It is a reminder of why I started this journey," said Traore. "I invite you all to join us, to plant more trees, to empower more women, and above all, to create a future full of opportunities for communities for today and for future generations."   

The UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women and Girls received an honorable mention. Speaking about the award, President of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq Jannat Al Ghezi paid a tearful tribute to its founder Yanar Mohammed, who was assassinated outside her home in Baghdad in March.

'Be that change'

UN Assistant Secretary-General Michelle Muschett said the finalists "remind us that the future is something we create together and that each of us has the power to help shape it and open doors for the next generations."

"When they tell you that one person cannot make a difference, prove them wrong," UN SDG Action Campaign Director Marina Ponti told the audience. "Change has always begun with people who refused to accept that the world could not be different. So be courageous. Be persistent. Be that change."

How are the awards organized?

A panel of 20 judges from UN leadership, government, civil society, the arts, business and youth activism chose the winners. They included UN Development Programme Administrator Alexander De Croo, Oxfam International Executive Director Amitabh Behar, and Otto Group Vice President Tobias Wollermann.

The awards are run by the UN SDG Action Campaign, a special initiative of the UN Secretary-General. The campaign supports the UN Sustainable Development Goals, 17 targets adopted by member states that cover areas including poverty, hunger, education, gender equality and climate protection.

The awards are supported by Italy's Foreign Ministry and Germany's Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Editor's Note: DW Director General Barbara Massing was a member of the 20-person jury panel.

The top echelon of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) held a four-day session behind closed doors in Beijing this week, with the talks focusing on strict leadership and discipline inside the ruling party.

Xi Jinping, who is both the CCP's general secretary and the head of state in China, signaled he would not only deepen the existing anti-corruption effort, but also ensure that party officials demonstrate more loyalty and more initiative at all levels.

According to the press release published on Thursday, the committee published a resolution praising the leadership and Xi Jinping for "enormous political courage and strong sense of responsibility" in tackling the issues of corruption and the weakening of the Party's governance.

The statement emphasized the need to "consistently advance comprehensive and strict Party leadership."

China's leadership fears instability

Kerry Brown, head of the Lau China Institute at King's College London, says Xi wants to minimize potential sources of instability.

Amid the current international tensions and the internal problems in China, including economic difficulties, Xi is pursuing his anti-corruption campaign and is demanding loyalty. "This is just going to intensify because if [the CCP] isn't disciplined and united, the party believes that it will go the same way as everywhere else in the world at the moment and become disunited and unstable," Brown told DW.

'Two-faced' party members targeted by Xi

Xi also recently spoke of the necessity to identify and remove "two-faced functionaries" from the political system.

In his speech, which was published in mid-October by the party's Qiushi Magazine, Xi referred to people professing loyalty to the central leadership while working against its instructions and following their own "individualistic" goals. The Chinese president described them as "political opportunists." He also criticized party officials pretending to be "nice guys," as in, those who use harmony as an excuse to stand aside when problems arise.

Brown points out that China's political system is now facing a crucial dilemma: If officials at all levels are now indeed expected to show innovation and courage in solving problems, the party's control could grow weak. This could, in turn, boost corruption.

However, if CCP leaders lean more on the "strict Party leadership" aspect and ramp up the pressure on the rank-and-file, there is also the danger of suppressing initiative. This could go beyond the party itself and could even affect the military.

The party is "very, very risk averse," Brown points out.

China 'kind of works' in a messy world

Chong Ja Ian, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore, notes that party functionaries under Xi only have a limited space to make their own decisions.

Taking this into account, the party's push for individuals to show initiative is not necessarily a major issue.

"I believe Xi would like for the officials to act proactively and decisively by conducting specific tasks; but he still doesn't want them thinking for themselves so much that they can question the agenda he prescribed. The 'proactivity' demanded by Xi is limited to the implementation, not decision-making," he told DW.

Brown adds that Xi seems to be ready to sacrifice a certain amount of operational flexibility to gain more control and stability.

"As long as you have unity, you live for another day, right? But if you have disunity, you probably die the same day," he told DW.

This approach "kind of works," at least at the moment, he added.

"It's not like the Chinese economy is disastrous. It's not great, but it's not disastrous. In any case, look at the outside world. It's a mess."

Who will succeed Xi Jinping?

Outside observers are also focusing on Xi's future and possible successors for the 73-year-old leader.

For now, Xi seems to be firmly in control. It is highly likely that he would be confirmed as the party's general secretary next fall, and could stay in that position until 2032.

This is due to the changes pushed by Xi in 2018, which removed term limits for state and party leaders.

Both analysts told DW that the issue of succession plays a major role in Xi's push towards internal stability.

"There's always a danger of differences in the party fragmenting it, especially when the question of succession comes up," says Brown. "And even though we don't expect to see a successor anytime soon, you know, there's going to be speculation about who might succeed Xi."

"He can't go on forever," he added. 

Political scientist Chong Ja Ian says that Xi currently holds all the power. Therefore, the CCP leader could be afraid of his authority being undermined if he named a successor ahead of time.

"On the other hand, a failure to make preparations on time could create a power vacuum that can cause major instability," he told DW. "To solve this dilemma, the current leader needs to have both the necessary self-confidence and the readiness to take a step back — just like his predecessors did. But not everyone has that kind of confidence."

This text was originally published in Chinese.

The European Union is vying for a larger role in Indo-Pacific security as the US finds itself on the back foot in the Eastern Hemisphere.

India is among the regional powers looking for new allies. Its rising economy and increasingly global ambitions have pushed it into new forums and partnerships, including ever closer defense ties with the European bloc.

In January this year, India and the EU signed a Security and Defense Partnership, followed by their first formal Security and Defense Dialogue in March. More meetings followed throughout the year, including the fifth Maritime Security Dialogue in Brussels last month.

However, while both sides want to boost cooperation on maritime security, working together in the Indo-Pacific remains a challenge — India and European countries simply have different defense priorities.

France a player in the Indian Ocean theater

"Europe can be a credible defense partner of India, especially in the maritime theater in general and Indo-Pacific in particular," Mohan Kumar, a former Indian ambassador to France, told DW.

But Europe's capacity to expand its role is constrained by other security crises.

"European distractions such as the conflict in Ukraine, which is of existential importance for it, do detract from this objective and can be a limiting factor," he added.

France is a notable exception, given its established military presence in the Indian Ocean.

"France, with its presence in Reunion Island and Mayotte, is already cooperating with India in the Indian Ocean theater and this cooperation can be intensified," added Kumar.

Javed Ashraf, another Indian diplomat, said that France has been "a strong, trusted and consistent security partner across the full spectrum of defense cooperation."

"What makes the partnership easier is the acceptance that the two may not always agree or be in a position to cooperate," said Ashraf.

"France also stands out for India because [France] has currently no defense cooperation with Pakistan or with China."

EU disunited on security?

While France remains the EU's only nuclear power and maintains its strongest military force, a cooperation between Paris and New Delhi does not automatically translate into a coherent European security role across the Indo-Pacific.

"Europe as an entity has very little role in the Indo-Pacific security despite the announcement of a strategy in 2025," said Tara Kartha, a former member of India's National Security Council Secretariat.

She pointed to political differences among EU members as an obstacle to a coherent security outlook.

Those differences were on display during the EU's October 15–16 summit in Brussels, when leaders reaffirmed support for Ukraine, but also signaled disagreements over funding and national priorities.

What can EU offer to India?

This could also explain why, as India's defense ties with Europe keep expanding, much of that cooperation still takes place between New Delhi and individual European nations.

Germany, Spain, Italy and Poland have all emerged as important partners.

Ashraf said Brussels could signal broader support for its member states' partnerships with India and provide access to EU-funded programs, boosting cooperation in areas such as maritime security, space, critical minerals, chips and defense technologies.

"India is also becoming an important source of defense supplies for a re-arming Europe," the diplomat added.

There may also be opportunities to share experience in emerging areas of warfare.

"India could also access drone technology in light of valuable experience gained by Europeans in Ukraine," Kumar said.

Germany, the EU's largest economy, is another important part of this relationship. Alongside France, it has become a defense partner for India, including through major equipment purchases. India could push for its relationship with Berlin to include industrial partnerships and technology development.

But experts warn that closer defense ties should not be confused with a shared strategic outlook, as European countries have their own priorities. 

Russia and China as major obstacles

The differences between Brussels and New Delhi are particularly clear when it comes to Russia and China.

India still relies heavily on Russian equipment and technology, even as it seeks to diversify its defense supplies. European governments, meanwhile, have been engaged in a tense standoff with Russia since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

That creates a problem for those seeking to deepen defense industry ties.

"Buying a few big-ticket defense items, such as Rafale fighter jets from France or submarines from Germany, is one thing," said Gulshan Sachdeva, a professor of European Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

"However, integrating India's defense industry into the expanding European defense value chain is more challenging as long as Russia remains Europe's principal security concern."

China presents a different but equally important challenge. For India, China is a rival and source of major security issues, including an ongoing border dispute. While the EU also sees China as a "systemic rival," its members differ in how they balance security concerns with their economic relationships with China.

These differences complicate attempts to develop a shared assessment of Indo-Pacific threats.

On a geopolitical level, India wants partnerships that strengthen its capabilities without requiring it to align fully with another power's strategic priorities. European governments are also weighing their regional ambitions against security demands closer to home.

Cooperation without a security umbrella

The new India-EU partnership creates a framework for closer engagement, but it does not amount to a joint security commitment.

Ashraf said the two sides could strengthen their mutual capabilities but were unlikely to exercise a visible influence on the global security order.

For now, maritime domain awareness, information-sharing, defense technology and selective industrial cooperation offer more realistic prospects than a common security role of the EU and India across the Indo-Pacific.

Edited by: Darko Janjevic

The US government has begun a quiet reproachment with Myanmar's military-backed government, holding two rounds of talks since September with State Department representative Michael Vance. American diplomats reportedly meet Myanmar officials in Naypyitaw and then in Tokyo earlier this month.

Washington wants to tackle online scam centers, secure the release of imprisoned American businessman Adam Castillo, and potentially gain access to Myanmar's rare-earth resources. The market for the valuable minerals is currently controlled by the US rival China.

Meanwhile, Southeast Asian governments are also increasingly questioning their policy of isolating Myanmar's military leadership. Multiple countries have already renewed direct diplomatic contacts.

The EU, however, continues to reject the legitimacy of the military junta in the war-torn country. The European bloc has also remained unmoved by the 2025/2026 election, which ended with military chief Min Aung Hlaing becoming the president. The military retains control over the political system.

EU's sanctions still in force

The EU responded to Myanmar's February 2021 military coup by suspending direct financial assistance to the government, imposing targeted sanctions and sharply reducing diplomatic engagement with the military authorities.

Its sanctions currently cover 105 individuals and 22 entities connected to the military. In April, the EU extended these measures for another 12 months.

At the same time, Brussels is providing humanitarian assistance to displaced communities and Rohingya refugees and is supporting civil society organizations.

The EU also stopped short of withdrawing Myanmar's preferential trade access because of concerns about the consequences for workers, particularly the mostly young women employed in the country's garment industry. Last year, bilateral goods trade was worth about €4 billion ($4.46 billion), up from €3.4 billion in 2019.

Brussels supports ASEAN's peace deal

The civil war triggered by the 2021 coup has killed an estimated 100,000 people. Rebel groups still control or contest large swathes of Myanmar, and over 4 million people have been internally displaced, according to UN data.

The EU "continues to uphold its policy of non-recognition of the current military regime," in view of "the ongoing violence and the attack against its own population," an EU spokesman told DW.

At the same time, the bloc "is closely monitoring developments in the discussions and positions of the United States, Japan, ASEAN countries and other major actors with representatives of Myanmar's military regime."

"It also supports ASEAN efforts, in particular the Five-Point Consensus, which has yet to be fully implemented," the spokesperson added, referring to the peace deal proposed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2021.

Myanmar diplomats reach out to European partners

In the aftermath of the coup, ASEAN took the unprecedented decision to exclude Myanmar's military leaders from its highest-level meetings after the junta failed to implement the regional peace plan.

However, ASEAN's position is showing signs of change. Some member states, most notably Myanmar's neighbor Thailand, signal growing frustration with the lack of progress towards ending Myanmar's civil war.

Last week, Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow welcomed Washington's renewed engagement and suggested that ASEAN members would hold substantive discussions about Myanmar's future at their summit in Manila next month.

Myanmar's authorities are also seeking to break their diplomatic isolation. In September, Myanmar's leader Hlaing gave an interview to Time magazine, his first with a major Western publication since the coup, as part of an apparent effort to rebuild relations with Western governments.

On October 22, Burma Campaign UK, a London-based human rights organization, accused the British government of making a "significant shift in approach" after the British Foreign Office hosted Win Zeyar Tun, the charge d'affaires of Myanmar's military-controlled embassy in London, at an ASEAN diplomatic gathering days earlier.

According to an article published by Intelligence Online this month, the regime's charge d'affaires in Brussels, Khin Thidar Ay, has also sought contacts with European politicians, including Czech MEP Ondrej Dostal, a member of the European Parliament's delegation for Southeast Asia.

EU's isolation 'has achieved relatively little'

Kristina Kironska, of Palacky University Olomouc in the Czech Republic and an expert on the EU's policy on Myanmar, told DW that the EU has little reason to follow Washington's apparent shift towards engagement with the Myanmar junta.

The US strategy "appears to be pursuing specific interests" such as rare earth mining and cybercrime, she said.

However, the most important rare earth mining operations are no longer controlled by the military, but by rebels such as the Kachin Independence Organization in Kachin State. "It remains to be seen what the US can achieve through negotiations with the junta," she said.

The EU has long positioned itself as a defender of democracy and human rights in Myanmar, "so abandoning this now because the US is exploring a new, perhaps more transactional approach would undermine the EU's credibility," Kironska added.

"At the same time, isolation has achieved relatively little. The question is therefore not whether the EU should engage, but rather with whom and under what conditions." 

Balancing act between Myanmar's rebels and junta

The EU is forced to consider risks to its own influence. If Washington, ASEAN governments and other regional powers increase their engagement with Myanmar's authorities, the EU risks becoming increasingly marginal in discussions about the country's political future.

Yet greater engagement with the military could undermine Brussels' relations with Myanmar's democratic opposition and ethnic resistance organizations, many of which control substantial territory.

"The key question for Brussels is whether it can remain a credible defender of democratic change while ensuring that it still has a meaningful voice in the negotiations that will determine Myanmar's future," Sabe Soe, director of the NGO Burma Centre Prague, told DW.

One possibility is for Brussels to maintain its sanctions against military leaders and their businesses while expanding diplomacy through ASEAN, the UN and other regional partners. The EU could also tie any easing of restrictions to humanitarian access, improvements in political freedoms and progress towards peace.

Soe also suggested that the EU could pursue economic engagement in areas administered by revolutionary and ethnic resistance forces, offering an alternative to engagement centered on the military authorities in Naypyidaw.

This approach would allow the EU to remain involved in Myanmar's future without necessarily recognizing its military-backed government, she said.

For now, Brussels seems to have little appetite for a fundamental policy rethink. But this could change as more governments reopen their doors to Myanmar's generals.

Edited by: Darko Janjevic

During his recent visit to India, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk seemingly went out of his way to ingratiate himself to Narendra Modi, describing the Indian leader as a "beacon of hope" in the times of global uncertainty and instability.

One of the issues the two prime ministers discussed was the war in Ukraine, a country bordering Poland which Warsaw supports diplomatically and militarily against Russia.

"We will support all efforts aimed at achieving peace," Modi said during the joint press briefing.

Previous reports indicated India had formulated a plan to halt strikes on energy infrastructure between Russia and Ukraine and protect ships transporting grain and fuel. Before traveling to New Delhi, Tusk had also indicated that India "could play a constructive role" regarding the war, saying that this aspect was "very important" to him.

While no concrete steps were announced during his trip, many in Europe still hope India can use its friendship with Russia to boost peace talks.

Analysts warn, however, that New Delhi's access to the Kremlin does not automatically grant it sway over Russian President Vladimir Putin and his decisions.

India 'cannot guarantee peace'

India is unlikely to sacrifice its own interests at Europe's insistence, says India's former ambassador to Poland Anil Wadhwa. So far, New Delhi has maintained its political and defense relationship with Moscow while calling for dialogue and diplomacy and resisting pressure to align fully with Western sanctions.

Moreover, while New Delhi may be able to communicate with both Moscow and Kyiv, there is no guarantee either side will respond to its efforts or make concessions.

"Poland wants India to use its access to Vladimir Putin to encourage a ceasefire and meaningful negotiations, while recognizing the limits of New Delhi's influence over Russian military decisions," he told DW.

The challenge, Wadhwa said, was to translate India's diplomatic access into practical outcomes without expecting too much.

"India can contribute to de-escalation and help create conditions for negotiations, but it cannot guarantee peace," he said.

Europe moves closer to India despite Russia row

The Polish initiative also reflects a wider European effort to deepen relations with India.

Ummu Salma Bava, chairperson and Jean Monnet Chair at the Centre for European Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, told DW that Tusk's visit had two objectives: strengthening ties between India and his own country and persuading New Delhi to factor in the EU's perspective on the Ukraine war.

"The Ukraine war has become central to European security. India's strong association with Moscow despite the war has raised concerns on developing cooperation on security between India and the EU," Bava said.

Poland, a frontline state, does not want Russia to gain additional economic benefits from its relationship with India.

So far, according to Bava, "both sides have managed to compartmentalize the Ukraine issue" while advancing cooperation on trade, security and defense.

But their differences could complicate future efforts to expand defense and security cooperation, she warned.

US shift on Ukraine lets EU allies change stance

Ajay Bisaria, another former envoy to Poland, says India's position has "matured into that of a potential peacemaker" and its ability to communicate with both Kyiv and Moscow is now perceived as useful.

According to Bisaria, not even Warsaw regards "the Russia question" as a "significant irritant in the India-Europe or India-Poland relationship."

"Europe, and Poland in particular, understands the depth of India's partnership with Russia, just as India appreciates the very different lens through which much of Europe views Moscow and the war in Ukraine," Bisaria told DW.

This shift in perspective, according to Bisaria, is partly due to the US changing its own stance on the conflict and seeking mediation. This, in his view, strengthens the case for European governments to pursue close ties with India despite their differences over Moscow.

Edited by: Darko Janjevic

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz kicked off a five-day tour of Asia on Monday, traveling to Singapore before his scheduled visits to Japan and South Korea. Merz is accompanied by an entourage of 30 senior businesspeople, including representatives of Germany's industry, tech and defense companies, and energy suppliers.

At the same time, Germany's President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is visiting China.

While the trips are not officially related, they both seem aimed at boosting Berlin's economic and security relationships at a time of geopolitical instability, which threatens global supply chains.

Japan needs close allies

In Singapore, Merz is set to deliver a major foreign policy speech and meet Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. He will then travel to Japan on Wednesday to meet with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and take part in the German-Japanese Business Summit.

Merz's visit "will be very much welcomed in Tokyo," said Ben Ascione, an assistant professor of politics and international relations at Tokyo's Waseda University.

"For more than a decade, Japan has been looking to generate new security allies and closer trade partnerships," he told DW.

"This greater outreach was started under Prime Minister [Shinzo] Abe, but Takaichi is very much following that blueprint because of the growing tensions in the Indo-Pacific region and the greater uncertainty around the second administration of [US President] Donald Trump," he added.

Germany and Japan face different, but connected threats

The challenges posed by an increasingly expansionist China in the region are of deep concern to Tokyo, particularly as Beijing is forging closer ties with both Russia and the unpredictable regime in North Korea. China and Russia have conducted joint military exercises off Japan, and Beijing is resolute in its insistence that Taiwan be brought under the control of the mainland.

Ascione points out that any conflict over Taiwan, the disputed islands of the South China Sea or territorial claims elsewhere in the region would have a major impact on global trade. Such disruptions would also impact Germany.

"Japan and Germany have different primary security threats at the moment, with Germany focused on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Japan keeping a close watch on China, North Korea and Russia, but I do believe that Germany has come more into line with Takaichi's perception of the security threat that is posed by China," Ascione said.

"Takaichi is going to underline the importance of a rules-based order and the policy of a free and open Indo-Pacific at a time of such geopolitical uncertainty," he added. "Japan has in recent years moved towards greater resilience building, supply chain resilience and more and deeper security partnerships."

German military assets welcome in Japan

According to Ascione, Japan would also "welcome" Germany deploying its military assets to the region, following its Bayern frigate docking in Tokyo in 2021 and its fighter jets conducting air drills with Japanese fighters in 2024.

The frigate Bayern became the first German Navy warship to dock in Tokyo in 20 years in May 2021 and went on to conduct air and maritime exercises with Japanese units. In July 2024, German Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft similarly carried out air drills with Japanese fighters over northern Japan.

Merz and Takaichi are expected to exchange views on responding to geopolitical threats.

This would include ensuring supply chain resilience, protecting strategically important industries and ensuring access to technologies and components, such as the rare earths that are critical to a range of advanced technologies but remain largely controlled by China.

European nations 'irritated' by Seoul's outreach to North Korea

Merz is then scheduled to visit South Korea, where he will meet with President Lee Jae-myung and open the 19th Asia-Pacific Conference of German Business in Seoul. He is also due to visit the Demilitarized Zone that marks the border between North and South Korea.

Security issues will again dominate discussions in Seoul, believes Saeme Kim, a research fellow at The Asan Institute for Policy Studies.

However, the German leader could voice concerns about South Korea's perceived "outreach" efforts towards North Korea and, by extension, Russia.

"There has been discussion recently about exports of petroleum to Russia, although Seoul says it has not breached sanctions," she said.

South Korea is trying to set up a way to communicate with Pyongyang, according to the expert, despite the regime of Kim Jong Un sending troops to the conflict in Ukraine.

"It's not just Germany, I think a lot of European countries will be irritated by the Lee administration trying to improve relations with North Korea and Russia," Kim said.

The South also continues to provide humanitarian assistance to North Korea, even as the regime forges ever closer economic ties with China and Russia.

"The government needs to keep in mind that some of these policies are going to be damaging to South Korea's own interests over the long-run," she said.

Can South Korea learn from German reunification?

At the same time, Merz could also offer insight into two Koreas trying to work with one another, drawing on the German experience of reuniting in 1990.

"There are lessons that South Korea can learn, of course, but there are a lot of differences," Kim said. "The two Koreas are still technically at war and Seoul has to deal with an aspiring nuclear power on its border."

Merz will have the opportunity to see the North at a distance when he visits the DMZ. His visit to the border, however, could also be canceled due to lingering tensions over the North Korean mine injuring three South Korean soldiers last month. Pyongyang has accused the South of staging the incident.

Edited by: Darko Janjevic

Eight years have passed since Frank-Walter Steinmeier's last trip to China. Since then, the relationship between China and Europe has changed significantly. The German president plans to spend several days touring China before concluding his visit in Beijing, where he will meet with China's leaders.

His visit comes just as the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee is convening for its plenary session, a major annual event that foreign dignitaries usually avoid when timing their visits.

The focus of the president's five-day trip will be "Germany's diverse and complex relations with China, as well as the challenges involved," his office said in a statement. In addition to sites of cultural exchange, the itinerary will also include a visit to a Volkswagen plant in Hefei.

A diplomatic balancing act

The automotive industry, in particular, illustrates the dilemma facing Germany's China policy. China is one of the most important markets for German automotive and machinery manufacturers, as well as for the chemical industry. At the same time, state-supported overcapacity in China is putting pressure on European manufacturers.

Not only that. Germany and Europe are dependent on China for raw materials and technologies, which means they are increasingly seeking out alternative partnerships.

Steinmeier was once an advocate of the policy of "change through trade" — the idea that other countries could be persuaded to become more democratic with the leverage of global trade — which has few adherents left in Germany today.

Now he must now pursue a tougher European line in Beijing. Caught between partnership and competition, Europe leaders recently managed to reach an agreement: Imports of plug-in hybrid vehicles from China are to be scaled back.

"That was a concrete step, but it can only be the beginning," said Michael Laha, an expert on China at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) in Berlin.

Chancellor and president both in Asia

Coinciding with Steinmeier's state visit to China, Chancellor Friedrich Merz is traveling to the Indo-Pacific with business representatives. His visit to Japan, Singapore and South Korea will focus on competitiveness, technological upheavals, defense cooperation and critical raw materials. Merz is visiting companies and attending important regional economic conferences in Tokyo and Seoul.

The dual trips are Berlin's attempt to send a twofold message: While the chancellor is "deliberately strengthening Germany's partnerships in the Indo-Pacific at a time of global upheaval," according to Laha, the president is seeking dialogue with Beijing at a time when Germany and Europe are recalibrating their relationship with China. 

"This joint trip sends a very well-coordinated message to the Chinese that we remain committed to the partnership but at the same time are taking steps to reduce risk," said Laha, before adding that this is a difficult balancing act that also allows China to save face.

Little room for human rights

While Merz will be accompanied by a large economic delegation, Steinmeier will be traveling to China with representatives from German culture, politics, and academia. Mikko Huotari, director of the China Institute MERICS, is also expected to be part of the delegation — even though Beijing has imposed sanctions on the institute. "The fact that he is coming along sends a clear message to the Chinese side that we do not approve of the sanctions," said Laha.

In 2021, the EU imposed sanctions against several Chinese party and regional officials, as well as an organization accused of serious human rights violations and oppressing the Uyghur minority. It was the first time such sanctions had been imposed on China since the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, and Beijing did not take kindly to them. In response, the Chinese government imposed entry bans and other sanctions against European politicians, scholars, and institutions, including MERICS.

Laha did not expect human rights to play a major role in the German president's trip. Steinmeier is considered a pragmatist when it comes to China policy. As foreign minister, he distanced himself from his predecessor Joschka Fischer, a critic of China, and even criticized Chancellor Angela Merkel when she hosted the Dalai Lama.

China should assume international responsibility

On the subject of Ukraine, Steinmeier is likely to be more direct and raise the issue of China's role in the conflict. "Beijing is clearly on Moscow's side," said Laha. In Berlin, however, officials are convinced that China can do more to persuade Russia to engage in serious negotiations and find a solution to the conflict.

Steinmeier may make this clear in his speech at Peking University on Thursday. Germany has "long viewed China's emergence with respect and goodwill," read a statement from the president's office. Today, however, the focus is less on China's continued rise and more on how it uses its growing power.

"If the president points out that Russia used its power to attack a sovereign state, he could be alluding to another regional connection: Taiwan," said Laha. That could be seen as an appeal to Beijing to assume more responsibility for the regional and international order.

To conclude his visit, Steinmeier will meet with China's leadership in Beijing. Talks are planned with President Xi Jinping, whom he has known for nearly two decades, as well as with Premier Li Qiang and the chairman of the National People's Congress, Zhao Leji. 

The trip marks the culmination of Steinmeier's focus on Asia during his second term in office. Since then, he has deliberately sought to forge close ties with partners in the region and has advocated for greater diversification. Now China, which is Germany's most important and most challenging partner, will come to its own conclusion.

This article was originally published in German.

Japanese Foreign Ministry officials were in Moscow this week in an attempt to contact a journalist arrested in Russia's far east on allegations of spying.

Journalist Yuki Imai was arrested on October 14 by Russia's FSB security service in the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Sakhalin Island. Televised footage of the arrest showed FSB officers barging into his hotel room as he slept.

The correspondent for the Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper was accused of attempting to obtain information on soldiers in the region, which is near the Kiril islands, a geopolitical sore spot in Russia-Japan relations.

Russian authorities quickly transferred him to Lefortovo Prison in Moscow, where a court ordered him to be held in pretrial detention until at least December 12. If convicted, 34-year-old Imai faces up to 20 years in jail, according to the International Federation of Journalists, which has called for his immediate release.

Officials from the Japanese embassy in Moscow have been denied access to Imai. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has condemned the arrest and dismissed the claim that Imai was a spy.

Russian Ambassador Nikolay Nozdrev said Imai had been caught "red-handed," the official TASS news agency reported. Nozdrev has claimed that Japanese intelligence agencies use journalists to collect classified information with the goal of "undermining Russia's security and defense capability."

Russia accuses journalists of being 'spies'

Yoji Gomi, a veteran journalist and author who has reported from across Asia, told DW that Japanese journalists may occasionally meet with diplomats in the course of their work and "share thoughts and impressions." However, he rejects the idea that reporters are paid spies.

"One-party nations often see foreign correspondents as spies because that is exactly what they use their journalists for," he said.

"I can completely see how the Russians decided that Imai was a spy, as it is how they operate, plus he was in a sensitive part of Russia where there are lots of North Korean laborers that they want to keep quiet," Gomi added.

Stephen Nagy, a professor of international relations at Tokyo's International Christian University, told DW that Russia might see Imai as a bargaining chip it can use to exchange for nationals detained overseas.

Nagy doubts that Japan will give in to pressure.

"They are going to resist because it means that Russia, or any other country, can then just seize a Japanese national, put them on trial for espionage and demand the release of one of their people," he said.

"It would set a dangerous precedent," he added. 

The arrest comes after a member of the Russia-linked hacking group Qilin was arrested in Japan and extradited to Germany to face charges in connection with a 2024 cyberattack on a logistics center. 

The last time a journalist was arrested in Russia was in 2019 for "attempting to obtain classified information about Russia's military potential in the Far East," Russia's Interfax news agency reported. However, in this case, the journalist was quickly released. 

Imai's case is perhaps the most serious since 2023, when Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested in Russia and sentenced to 16 years in a penal colony before being released in a prisoner exchange with Western countries in 2024.

Strained Japan-Russia ties

Imai's arrest is the latest in a series of incidents that have sent bilateral relations into a tailspin.

Nagy said Imai's seizure was designed to put pressure on Tokyo. He added this is part of a coordinated approach with China to isolate Japan at a time when the US is preoccupied with domestic issues and the conflict in the Middle East.

"Moscow and Beijing are coordinating to create the image that Japan is not a reformed member of the international community but still the military state of the 1930s and that it poses a threat to stability in the Indo-Pacific region," Nagy said.

"This is all designed to smear Japan's efforts to lead diplomacy in the region at a time when the US is perhaps distracted," he said. "And it does not even matter much that it is not true; they will just continue to repeat the claim to discredit and weaken Tokyo."

Decadeslong row over disputed islands 

Tadashi Anno, a professor of politics at Tokyo's Sophia University, told DW that he believes Japan had been working hard to maintain a stable relationship with Russia, even after Tokyo joined international condemnation of the invasion of Ukraine.

Anno said Russia's timing in turning up the heat on Japan was puzzling.

"Japan condemned the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 because it was a fundamental violation of international law, but Russia is only now pushing back hard," he said.

At the center of deteriorating ties is a territorial dispute about a chain of islands off the far north of Japan that were seized by Soviet forces after Japan's surrender in World War II.

There had been hopes in the past in Tokyo that a concerted diplomatic effort could be sufficient to convince Russia to return the islands — known as the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils by Russia — to Japanese sovereignty.

That campaign has faltered in the past couple of years, and was further dented when Japan announced in the spring that it would be joining the NATO initiative to provide nonlethal assistance to Kyiv.

In August, President Vladimir Putin visited the disputed islands, becoming only the second Russian leader to do so. Earlier this month, a delegation of Chinese businesspeople was welcomed on one of the islands, and talks are underway on the possibility of economic cooperation.

Edited by: Wesley Rahn

"Laila" awoke in the middle of the night for a glass of water, checked her phone almost by accident, and saw an email that made her stomach drop. The US would stop funding the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF), one of the last places women can still study in the country.

Laila said she sat on her bed, staring, her thoughts racing through the past five years and everything she had endured just to get an education.

It had not been easy to find a way to study in Afghanistan after the Taliban outlawed women's education.

The American University campus was already taken over by the Taliban, but she could study secretly through the university's online program. But now that the university is losing its financing, she told DW she and her classmates fear it will shut down entirely. Her name has been changed for safety reasons.

A hidden education for women in Afghanistan

Laila is in her mid-twenties. She studies political science and international studies and is one of around 1,000 enrolled students at the university, three-quarters of them women.

When the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, Laila was studying at another university in Kabul, with just two final exams remaining to finish her semester. Then, in December 2022, the Taliban announced the ban. Laila's degree was left unfinished. 

Laila secured a scholarship to AUAF and started over. "Not every girl got that opportunity," she said. 

Laila has told few people outside of her family about her online studies. On most days, she stays home for remote lectures, alongside classmates who use aliases and keep their cameras off for security. "I just know their voices," she said.

Laila speaks English with an American accent. She learned it as a child, watching cartoons. In her early twenties, she was learning even more about the world outside Afghanistan and studying foreign governments. 

Then on August 14, 2021, Laila's life changed. She and a friend sat in a restaurant in Kabul. They had just finished an exam and wanted to celebrate passing the test by ordering coffee and cake. Suddenly, a man came in, stopped at the entrance, and shouted "Allahu Akbar." He yelled that the mujahideen would always be victorious. 

That was the day before the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan, they soon forced women out of public life, banning them from many jobs and from attending school and university. 

Laila said she recalls losing feeling in her hands or feet. She pulled money from her purse and slammed it on the table without checking the amount. "We all thought maybe this would be the last day that we are alive," she said.

Since then, some of Laila's peers have received threatening calls and messages. Now, whenever she leaves home, she worries that Taliban authorities might search her phone.

"What if they see my emails from my work, from my university?" she said.  "It's always in the back of my head that maybe tomorrow it's my turn. Maybe they will detain me." 

Even her home isn't safe. Laila said Taliban authorities have entered on several occasions to search their belongings. 

Yet, she has continued studying. For all its limitations and risks, the online program offered a chance to graduate.

A place for Afghanistan's 'future leaders'

With the US pulling out as the university's primary funder, Laila said she doubts whether she has the strength to start over. 

The American University of Afghanistan was always intended, largely, for women. Before the campus opened in 2006, former US first lady Laura Bush announced that the US had committed millions to support it.

Appearing in Kabul, Bush said the new university would teach "future leaders," particularly women. Women like Laila, who was four years old at the time.  

"These are more than just development projects," Bush said at the time. "They also signify the bond between the American and Afghan people. They are symbols of our shared hopes and dreams."

Patrick Fine was Afghanistan mission director at USAID, the now-defunct American development agency. Fine told DW that many at USAID considered the university idea risky. Critics thought training elites was a waste of money. 

But the Bush administration saw an opportunity to stabilize a budding democracy, Fine said.

By 2003, the Taliban had been driven from power. US President George W. Bush wanted to foster goodwill for the US-backed interim government that had replaced the Taliban. The university served that goal, and also offered other "facets of advantage" in educating women, training future politicians, and supporting the Afghan economy. 

"It really impacted the lives of thousands of Afghan youth," Fine said, referencing alumni. "The organization has managed to achieve that against incredible odds."

Washington pulls the plug

The university continued with US support. But in Washington, that support started to come under question.

The US government suspected the university of mishandling money. In 2016, US inspectors opened an investigation into its finances. By 2018, investigators said they could not tell exactly how it was spending US aid money, because its accounting was so poor.

John Sopko, a former US federal inspector, oversaw that investigation. When DW contacted him for this story, he replied, "I was surprised they were still funding AUAF."

This year, after the funding was pulled, the US State Department Press Office told DW in an email that the move was made given the university's "history of repeated lack of accountability for millions of American taxpayer dollars."

Fine, the former USAID director, rejected the State Department's fraud explanation.

"Those are just smear tactics," he said. He conceded that past audits found the university struggling to keep up with USAID's extensive rules, "but they didn't find major fraud," he said. 

"It is still a useful investment, a worthy investment," Fine said, "and the reason for that is that it's one of the few organizations left that is reaching Afghan women."

The US isn't the university's only funder, but it has long covered most of its costs: nearly 90% as of 2018, according to a US report.

The US State Department told DW that the university is "free to identify other funders and partners, so the end of their receipt of American taxpayer money does not necessarily equate to an end to their operations."

But without the $25 million grant the State Department recently refused, the university's future is in doubt. 

What is next for women students in Afghanistan?

"I have lost all my motivation and hope," Laila said, adding that each time she prepares for a lecture, she wonders whether there will be another.  

Since she learned about the funding cut, she said she's barely left her room. Her curtains are usually closed, and she's lost her appetite. "Maybe I'm so disappointed that I can't even cry about it," she said. 

She said she was supposed to have graduated years ago. She was supposed to be making the world a better place. She was supposed to be studying for a master's degree abroad. Now, she's thinking, maybe she'll find a way in five or ten years. 

Edited by: Wesley Rahn 

The recent death of an iconic male elephant in Sri Lanka has raised concerns over ongoing contact between humans and the giant animals, whose habitats have been greatly reduced.

The elephant known as "Kavantissa" had been considered to be the tallest living male elephant in the Sri Lanka. Thought to be around 45 years old and measuring roughly 3.3 meters tall (11 feet), he roamed Sri Lanka's northwest near the village of Galgamuwa, and was widely admired for his majestic stature.

In late September, villagers noticed the 5.5 ton-tusker (5,500 kg) was limping, and a closer look reveled a gunshot wound on his right leg. Despite the intervention of veterinary surgeons, the elephant died on October 16. 

Sri Lanka records the highest number of elephant deaths annually and the second highest number of human deaths globally from violent interactions between elephants and humans, which usually happen when crop raiding elephants encroach on farmlands.   

According to official statistics, since 2019, an average of 370 elephants and 125 humans have died in human-elephant conflict incidents each year.

The situation affects the natural habitats of elephants and the livelihoods of rural communities.   

Home to about 10% of the global Asian elephant population and occupying about 2% of their total natural range, Sri Lanka has the highest density of Asian elephants in the world.

The Sri Lankan elephant is an endangered subspecies in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, and protected under Sri Lankan law, with punishment by fines and jail terms for wildlife-related offences. 

A shrinking habitat for elephants

During the past few decades, forest cover in Sri Lanka has shrunk as the population has grown.

Statistics show the rural population of Sri Lanka increased from 8.25 million in 1960 to 17.8 million in 2020.

Agriculture remains the primary source of income for these rural communities. As a result, the land is cleared for agricultural activities. 

According to Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) statistics, in 2024, an estimated 7,451 wild elephants were recorded in Sri Lanka. About 70% of these wild elephants live outside protected areas. 

Research shows elephants have a massive daily dietary requirement of about 150 kilograms (330 lbs.) of green matter, which drives them into farmland.

"Driven primarily by habitat loss, agricultural expansion, fragmentation of elephant corridors, and increasing competition for land and resources, human-elephant conflict continues to cause hundreds of elephant deaths and more than 100 human fatalities annually," said Ravi Corea, President of Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society, a Sri Lankan non-profit conservation organization.

The conservationist told DW that rural communities are severely affected, and the agricultural losses caused by elephants can threaten a family's primary source of food and income.

"This distinguishes human-elephant conflict from many human-wildlife conflicts in economically developed countries, where wildlife encounters, although sometimes serious, generally do not threaten household subsistence to the same extent," he said.

Elephants and humans clash 

"Despite the efforts by the government to mitigate HEC, the numbers are rising demonstrating the continuing severity of the crisis," Corea added.

Elephants are shot, poisoned, or killed by improvised explosives hidden in food and train collisions, experts say. 

In view of the escalation of human-elephant conflict, the Sri Lankan government in 2020 drafted a national action plan to mitigate the problem.

"The 2020 Action Plan provides a valuable foundation for reducing human–elephant conflict, but its recommendations must be strengthened through a comprehensive national conservation strategy with enforceable habitat protection at its core,"  Corea said.

"The ultimate measure of success must be not merely a reduction in human–elephant conflict, but the permanent protection of ecologically connected habitats, the survival of viable wild elephant populations and the ability of people and elephants to coexist sustainably for generations to come," he added.

Community-level initiatives protect people and elephants

Meanwhile, community-based programs by non-government organizations have proven effective and sustainable. These initiatives are complemented by elephant monitoring, scientific research, habitat assessments, community education, and the development of locally appropriate deterrents, Corea said

"Our flagship initiative Project Orange Elephant in Sri Lanka's Wasgamuwa region promotes the cultivation of citrus which elephants do not like to eat as a trophic deterrence. This reduces crop raiding while generating alternative income for farmers," Corea added, pointing to things like electric fencing protecting settlements and agricultural lands while encouraging local responsibility.

Another issue is confrontations on elephant corridors, that in some cases have discouraged children from walking to school.

Elephant corridors are designated strips of land that connect larger forest and habitat patches, allowing elephants to move safely between them for food, water, breeding, and seasonal migration. 

To address this, the "EleFriendly" bus service in Wasgamuwa, provides safe transportation for schoolchildren through elephant corridors and has reduced dangerous human-elephant encounters along its original route by over 90%.

"An ethically just solution must protect human lives, livelihoods, and elephant populations simultaneously, said Kamal Shashendra, a Sri Lanka-based environmental ethics researcher.

He told DW that this required scientifically informed land-use planning, protection of elephant corridors, appropriate community-based fencing, effective early-warning systems, and fair compensation for affected families. 

Edited by: Wesley Rahn 

Officials in Tehran are preparing for renewed strikes 

following media reports that the United States and Israel have been examining new options for escalating their war against Iran.

The US midterm elections on November 3 and Israel's October 27 election have injected a political factor into how both countries are approaching the conflict, which they launched in late February.

Polls show that high energy prices brought on by the Iran war are hurting Donald Trump's Republican Party. On October 8, the president posted on social media that the United States would not attack Iran before the midterms, citing "productive discussions" with Tehran. The United States last launched strikes on Iran in early September. 

After the elections are over, however, Trump may feel less politically constrained.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has campaigned on a platform of regime change in Iran.

Report: Plans in place for 'short' US-Israeli operation

Citing senior US officials the New York Times reported on Wednesday that the United States and Israel have "developed specific plans" for a "short but intensive operation" in Iran that would include targets such as nuclear facilities, energy infrastructure, and the country's arsenal of missiles and drones.

One official told the newspaper that the goal would be to force Iran into making "diplomatic concessions" by further weakening its economy, as negotiations to end the conflict have gone nowhere. The United States has also maintained a blockade of Iranian oil exports in the Strait of Hormuz that has sapped Tehran's oil revenues.

Other outlets have reported similar plans in recent weeks. In early October, Axios reported that the Pentagon has instructed US Central Command "to conclude preparations for resuming major combat operations in Iran."

There are currently two US aircraft carrier strike groups in the Arabian Sea, with a third expected to arrive by late November.

On October 15, Trump told the right-wing broadcaster Newsmax that he was considering a strike on Pickaxe Mountain, near the Natanz nuclear complex, where US officials say Iran may have moved sensitive nuclear-related material underground.

A day later, CNN reported that Trump is considering using a Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb on Iranian targets. As the MOAB creates a humungous blast wave above ground, its effectiveness in targeting underground facilities such as Pickaxe would be limited.

Has Iran learned from earlier attacks? 

Iranian officials say they are prepared for another attack, with a broad response that would include strikes on US bases and energy facilities in the Gulf.

Ali Asghar Shafieian, a media adviser to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, told DW that, although the United States retains a significant technological and military advantage, Tehran's strategy is based on preserving the regime's hold on the country rather than matching US strength.

"The United States has the upper hand in military power and technology, but Iran's strength is in how it deals with a crisis," Shafieian said. 

Shafieian pointed to the rapid replacement of senior officials killed in previous attacks as an example of how Tehran has tried to make its political structure more resilient. Iran has also been rebuilding missile and drone capabilities that were hit during the massive wave of strikes during the first weeks of the war.

Citing Iranian officials, the Reuters news agency reported this week that Iran is "preparing for renewed Israeli and US attacks, not for a deal with America to end the war," adding that Tehran was prolonging negotiations to try to weaken Trump ahead of the midterms.

Iran has told regional governments that US military bases and critical infrastructure could become targets if neighboring countries assist another US or Israeli operation. 

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has warned that participation or cooperation by regional states would result in a "decisive and proportionate response."

"Iran is prepared to give diplomacy another chance if we see strong evidence of a sincere desire by US to build trust & reach a just solution," Araghchi posted on X Wednesday. "But, if US chooses war over diplomacy, it'll certainly result in an even greater strategic failure."

How Iran prepares for new strikes?

Rahman Ghahremanpour, a Tehran-based political analyst, told DW that Iran's preparations extend beyond missiles and drones to prioritizing internal security.

That includes confronting armed opposition groups, preparing for possible protests and developing plans to prevent external military pressure from combining with domestic unrest. 

Another conflict, he said, could bring renewed internet restrictions and a stronger mobilization of government supporters in public spaces. 

"In the government's asymmetric-war strategy, the ultimate objective is to convince the United States that regime change through military action is impossible," Ghahremanpour said.

Ghahremanpour added that some factions within Iran have supported returning to a negotiated agreement. But he believes that Washington's demands are now considered so extensive that even Iranian officials who favor compromise struggle to build domestic support for them. 

"For now, we are facing a deadlock," Ghahremanpour said. "Iranian officials do not appear optimistic about reaching an agreement."

Talks continue to snag on Iran's nuclear program, which US officials say must top the agenda. 

Iran's latest proposal to the United States, sent through Qatari mediators, included an offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz under Iranian control, in exchange for the US's lifting its maritime blockade, releasing frozen assets and ending military actions.

Citing data from the ship tracker Kpler, the Wall Street Journal reported this week that oil flows through Hormuz are approaching prewar levels as the US military escorts tankers and shipping companies are more willing to take risks for a bigger payoff. This raises questions about whether Iran's leverage over oil flows might be weakening.

Fear of war inside Iran 

An escalation in the confrontation would come at a moment of severe economic pressure and growing political polarization for Iranians. 

A doctor in Tehran told DW that she fears what would happen should fighting resumed. Speaking with the media in Iran remains very dangerous, and she spoke under condition of anonymity.

"The economic situation has become extremely bad," she said. "Even if you have a good income yourself, you don't feel good living among so many people struggling with poverty," she added.

She expects authorities to restrict internet access again if fighting resumes. 

A woman in Tehran described anger toward regime supporters and said another war combined with domestic protests could increase the risk of confrontations on the streets. 

Asked about possible attacks on underground nuclear sites, she said the issue felt increasingly detached from her everyday problems. 

"What do the nuclear sites have to do with us?" she said. "They are inside mountains."

Edited: Emmy Sasipornkarn

Vietnam's Communist Party chief and president, To Lam, arrived in Brussels on Wednesday for an official visit to the European Union (EU) and Belgium in another sign that relations continue to expand. 

The visit comes just days after Vietnam signed a free trade agreement with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), comprising Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

Trade ties between Vietnam and Europe have deepened in recent years. The EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), which took effect in August 2020, substantially expanded Vietnam's commercial ties with most European states.

Amid global tariff wars, the EU-Vietnam relationship "is a welcome advertisement for keeping markets open," Khac Giang Nguyen, a visiting fellow at the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, told DW.

"This is a win-win for both sides," he said. "Vietnam offers Europe an established manufacturing base and another foothold in Asian supply chains. Europe offers Vietnam capital, technology and a large market, helping Hanoi reduce its exposure to American demand and Chinese industrial inputs." 

Vietnam-EU ties deepen

Vietnam is now the EU's largest goods-trading partner in Southeast Asia and its 14th-largest globally. The EU is Vietnam's fourth-largest trading partner and a major source of foreign investment.

Noneconomic relations are also advancing. In January, both sides upgraded ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership — the first such agreement between the EU and a Southeast Asian country.

Vietnam has become a key strategic partner for the EU in the Indo-Pacific, Alfred Gerstl, an expert on Indo-Pacific international relations at the University of Vienna, told DW.

"The cooperation is crucial for advancing the EU's economic security agenda and its strategy of de-risking from China," he said, referring to the European Union's efforts to diversify its supply chains and reduce dependence on Chinese manufacturing.

Several EU states have signed defense agreements with Vietnam. Bloc foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas held talks with Vietnamese Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung on Wednesday to discuss ways to improve security cooperation, including in the South China Sea, where Hanoi is locked in territorial disputes with China.

Concerns over Vietnam's human rights record

The relationship has also faced difficulties. Questions remain over whether European companies are benefiting sufficiently from Vietnam's economic boom and whether Brussels is overlooking Hanoi's worsening human rights record.

Vietnam remains a one-party communist state that severely restricts political opposition, independent journalism and civil society. Rights organizations say repression has intensified under To Lam, who previously headed the country's powerful public security ministry.

In an open letter sent this week to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa, 12 international human rights organizations raised "grave concerns over the Vietnamese government's intensifying repression" and urged EU leaders to demand meaningful reforms.

When negotiating the EVFTA and the accompanying political agreements, Hanoi agreed to obligations on human rights, labor protections and environmental standards.

These included commitments to reform labor legislation to permit independent worker organizations and align domestic regulations more closely with International Labour Organization (ILO) standards.

Rights groups say Hanoi has failed to deliver. Vietnam has still not ratified the ILO convention on freedom of association, and independent trade unions remain prohibited.

"The EU has taken no action in response to Vietnam's repeated breaches of its EVFTA-related obligations and pledges; instead, in January it upgraded bilateral relations," the joint letter read. 

Benefits 'distributed unevenly'

There are also questions about which Vietnamese companies have benefited most from the EU's trade liberalization.

Large foreign-invested manufacturers and established exporters have been better placed to exploit tariff reductions than smaller domestic businesses, which often lack the resources to navigate Europe's complex import requirements.

Vietnamese exporters also face growing demands from the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and its deforestation regulations, which require businesses in affected sectors to provide more detailed information about their production processes and supply chains.

"It is quite clear that the EVFTA's benefits have been distributed unevenly across sectors, firms and social groups, while political, regulatory, and economic challenges may complicate the next phase of the relationship," Hai Thiem Bui, a researcher at the Stockholm Center for Global Asia, Stockholm University, told DW.

"The next phase of EU-Vietnam trade relations is likely to depend less on tariff liberalization and more on whether Vietnam can adapt to increasingly demanding EU standards concerning labor rights, sustainability, and regulatory governance," he added. 

Better for EU?

Another challenge concerns how much European businesses are gaining from Vietnam's expanding export economy.

Although the EVFTA has considerably strengthened bilateral commerce, it has been far more successful at increasing Vietnamese exports to Europe than EU sales to Vietnam.

The EU's goods-trade deficit with Vietnam reached €51.7 billion ($57.9 billion) in 2025 — up from roughly €24 billion in 2019.

This imbalance is becoming more conspicuous as Brussels seeks greater economic security and new export opportunities for EU industries.

Another obstacle is the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement, signed in 2019, which has still not entered into force.

"We have also seen an uptick in investments by European businesses in Vietnam, despite the lack of an Investment Protection Agreement being in place," Chris Humphrey, executive director of the EU-ASEAN Business Council, told DW.

Germany ratified it in February and Poland followed in April, but France, the Netherlands and several other member states have yet to complete ratification.

The agreement will strengthen legal protections for investors and establish a permanent mechanism for resolving investment disputes, potentially encouraging greater EU investment in Vietnam.

"With a new government in Vietnam pursuing an ambitious legislative program but with an overall target of maintaining Vietnam's extraordinary growth path, we would expect trade to continue to flourish," Humphrey said.

"That said, many European businesses are looking carefully at what the legislative program may bring in terms of reform," he added.

For Brussels, the next phase of relations is about ensuring that EU businesses benefit from that growth, while demonstrating that its commitments to human rights and sustainable trade are more than diplomatic promises. 

Edited by: Emmy Sasipornkarn

Recent weeks have seen renewed attacks, assassinations and armed clashes in the southeastern province bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan. The incidents occurred in the provincial capital of Zahedan, as well as smaller border towns.

The border region of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan is home to the Baloch ethnic minority. The region on either side of the Iran-Pakistan border is among the most economically disadvantaged of the wider area.

The Pakistani province of Balochistan is economically underdeveloped, despite having large reserves of natural gas, gold and copper.

The situation is similarly dire in the Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchistan, which is predominantly inhabited by Sunni Baluchis. It is one of the poorest regions in the country and marked by underdeveloped infrastructure, limited educational opportunities and water supply shortages.

Significantly less information is available about the situation of the Baloch in Afghanistan.

Armed groups sense security gaps

Various Baloch groups are active in Iran and Pakistan, some of whom seek Balochistan independence. Yet to date, there is no evidence of coordinated cross-border cooperation among these organizations.

In December 2025, several Baloch opposition groups in Iran united under the umbrella of the Popular Fighters Front. Observers see this as an attempt to more closely integrate their political and military activities.

This coalition, which formed before the outbreak of the Iran war, could try to exploit security gaps created by the current situation, Iranian journalist Mehdi Nakhl Ahmadi told DW.

Ahmadi, who lives in Italy, has been covering the situation of the Baloch people for years. He said the new security situation could allow armed groups to expand their operations.

Struggling with poverty, suffering marginalization

Ahmadi said there are structural reasons for Baloch dissatisfaction. "The Islamic Republic's security policy toward ethnic and religious regions has widened the gap in economic development between these regions and other parts of the country in recent decades," he said.

He added that the rising number of attacks points to a shift in dynamics, as do increased coordination and changes in the way recent operations have been carried out.

Among the victims of recent clashes were members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the Basij militia, armed individuals, and a Sunni cleric.

A source within Iran, who is familiar with the situation of the Baloch people, yet whose identity we cannot disclose security for reasons, attributed some of the armed violence to political, economic and religious discontent.

Discrimination in employment, education, regional development and religious matters contribute to the tension, the source said.

That's why the armed conflict should not be viewed in isolation, the Iranian source explained. Clergy, academics and other social leaders had been trying for years to peacefully voice their demands for better social policies and greater investment in the region, the source said.

The fact that these efforts were largely unsuccessful had led to a growing willingness among some to resort to more radical measures.

"The high number of executions in recent decades is another factor that fuels discontent," said the source. Most documented executions in the province, meanwhile, are related to drug offenses.

Although Baluchis make only up an estimated 2–6% of the Iranian population, they are significantly overrepresented among those put to death. Iran Human Rights reports that Baluchis accounted for 9% of all recorded executions in 2025. In previous years, that figure was 11% (2024) and 20% (2023), respectively.

For many people who live in this economically disadvantaged region, smuggling opium into Iran, and fuel out of the country, are one of the few ways to earn a living. This, in turn, has contributed to a continued military and security presence at the border.

It is not, meanwhile, known whether armed groups in southeastern Iran are being supported from abroad.

Violence has also escalated in the Pakistani province of Balochistan. According to the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, 131 armed attacks were recorded there in September, up from 89 in August.

In addition to the separatist movement, which has been active for years, the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) are also expanding their operations. This had led to strategically important transportation links between Iran and Pakistan coming under growing pressure.

Still, it cannot be said with certainty whether the recent uptick in violence in Iran's Sistan and Baluchistan province stems from security gaps resulting from the Iran war.

The growing number of attacks does, however, suggests that the security situation in the already fragile border region continues to deteriorate.

Additional reporting by Morad Rahmati.

This article was originally written in German.

Pakistan and Afghanistan right now are locked in a cycle of escalating tension. Repeated border clashes have strained ties between the two nations. 

The current round of tensions began in February 2026, when Pakistan launched strikes into Afghanistan targeting Taliban militants. At one point in March, Pakistan's defense minister said the country was at "open war" with Afghanistan. Periodic bouts of violence have continued since then, with the latest Pakistani strikes targeting the Afghan Taliban's "terrorist hubs" reported earlier in October.

At the heart of the dispute is Pakistan's accusation that the Taliban authorities in Kabul allow the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant group, to target Pakistan from Afghan territory. Kabul denies providing the group with sanctuary.

Where does India come into play?

As the two neighbors trade strikes, the escalating conflict "presents a significant diplomatic and strategic opportunity for India," Shanthie Mariet D'Souza, an Afghanistan expert and founder of the India-based Mantraya Institute for Strategic Studies, told DW.

D'Souza argues the confrontation has weakened Pakistan's traditional influence in Afghanistan and encouraged the Taliban to broaden its external relations.

"India can respond by expanding diplomatic engagement, humanitarian assistance, development projects and trade, while seeking assurances that Afghan territory will not be used by anti-India militant groups," she said.

However, D'Souza cautioned against interpreting the opening as a fundamental realignment.

"There is no ideological alignment between India and the Taliban," she said. Afghanistan under Taliban rule is likely to pursue a diversified foreign policy rather than align exclusively with New Delhi.

India also lacks the geographical advantages, economic leverage and security presence needed to replace Pakistan's influence, she notes. "The scenario of the Taliban becoming a strategic ally remains far-fetched."

Former Indian ambassador to Afghanistan Amar Sinha warned against viewing the conflict simply as an opportunity for New Delhi to gain at Pakistan's expense.

"The issues have very little to do with India," Sinha told DW, arguing that India was not seeking strategic advantage from the fighting. He also pointed to the consequences of Pakistan's military actions for Afghan civilians.

"Yet the rupture has made Kabul's search for alternative partners more pressing," he added.

For India, that creates an opening, but not necessarily a strategic alignment, Sinha notes. The Taliban can seek Indian assistance while maintaining relations with China, Russia, Iran and Gulf states, preserving its autonomy rather than exchanging dependence on Pakistan for dependence on India.

The cost of closer ties

Gautam Mukhopadhyaya, another former Indian ambassador to Afghanistan, sees the deterioration in relations between Pakistan and the Taliban as an opportunity for India to recover some of the strategic ground it lost when the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

"The crisis has allowed strategic openings for India," Mukhopadhyaya told DW. He warned, however, that New Delhi's own treatment of Afghans could undermine its efforts to build a durable relationship.

He pointed to restrictions affecting Afghans seeking Indian visas for education, scholarships, work and medical treatment.

"For all practical purposes, India's security establishment treats Afghans as proxy Pakistanis and 'terrorists' by default," he said.

Former Afghan partners had been left "disappointed, even bitter," Mukhopadhyaya added. "A strategic relationship built on the sands of oppression is not a sound foundation."

Trade cannot overcome geography

India has restored air freight links between Kabul and Delhi and between Kabul and Amritsar in northwestern India in December 2025.

Bilateral trade between India and Afghanistan stood at about $908 million (€807 million) in the 2025-26 fiscal year, while trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan fell sharply amid repeated border closures.

On October 14, Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi stressed the importance of relations with India during talks with Indian charge d'affaires Yatin Patel, signaling Kabul's interest in expanding economic cooperation.

But air freight is expensive, and India cannot easily replace Pakistan as a transit route.

New Delhi has sought to use Iran's Chabahar port to improve access to Afghanistan and Central Asia, but regional instability and complications surrounding Iran have constrained those ambitions.

D'Souza cautioned that "the ongoing conflict in Iran" limits India's ability to use Chabahar as a crucial trade and connectivity hub.

Gulshan Sachdeva, a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University specializing in Afghanistan and Eurasian connectivity, highlighted similar obstacles.

"In the last few decades, Islamabad has obstructed Kabul's efforts to gain access to the vast Indian market. However, political instability in Afghanistan and sanctions on Iran have undermined these efforts," Sachdeva told DW.

"Afghanistan's potential as a connector between regional markets remains considerable, but the infrastructure and political conditions needed to realize it are far from assured," he added.

Sachdeva also sees Russia and China as better positioned to shape Afghanistan's wider economic integration. Alternative routes may become more attractive to India, but they are not commercially viable overnight.

Islamabad's security fears

Pakistan has portrayed arch-rival India's growing engagement with the Taliban as a security threat. On October 7, Pakistani diplomat Muhammad Jawad Ajmal accused India at the United Nations of providing the Taliban with material and logistical support.

"Under the guise of humanitarian aid, they have been actively supporting the Taliban regime with material and logistical support for carrying out terrorist attacks against Pakistan," Ajmal said.

The allegation reflects Islamabad's position and has not been established as fact.

Pakistan has accused India of supporting the TTP and the Balochistan Liberation Army, a militant organization.

India rejects accusations of backing militant activity, while the Taliban denies allowing Afghan territory to be used for attacks against Pakistan.

Ayesha Siddiqa, a Pakistani expert on military and security affairs at King's College London, offered a more nuanced assessment of Pakistan's position.

"India has stepped into a space and is trying to exert its influence and feed anti-Pakistan groups intelligence," she told DW.

Siddiqa added that Pakistan's establishment continues to view the crisis through "a singular security lens."

"Islamabad feels physically squeezed from both sides," she said, adding that closer Kabul-New Delhi ties could create "a dangerous two-front security trap" for Pakistan. 

India may gain more room to operate in Afghanistan as ties between Kabul and Islamabad deteriorate. But the Taliban is unlikely to put all its eggs in New Delhi's basket.

Edited by: Emmy Sasipornkarn

As many as 12,000 North Koreans working at a Russian drone factory are victims of "gross human rights abuses and human trafficking," according to a new report.

The figures were part of a joint report published on October 14 by the  Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Dallas-based George W. Bush Institute. It analyzes how Russia, North Korea, China and Iran are involved in expanding unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) production at the Yelabuga plant in Tatarstan, and what each country stands to gain.

While Moscow gets access to more than 5,500 drones a month for its war against Ukraine, China benefits from being the main supplier of dual-use components, including batteries, internal electronics, engines and navigation systems. 

Iran has supplied Russia with Shahed drones, which has helped Moscow produce upgraded domestic variants, known as Geran.

Meanwhile, North Korea is earning money by retaining as much as 90% of the wages of the laborers, the report stated.

"The geographical locations of these four countries… means that any kind of international interdiction is impossible," Dan Pinkston, a professor of international relations at the Seoul campus of Troy University, told DW. 

Russia and North Korea defy UN resolutions

The joint report says Russia and North Korea are defying United Nations Security Council Resolution 2397, of December 2017, which requires any UN member state to send North Korean workers home within two years.

"The North Korean regime… is selling the labor of its citizens under a state-to-state arrangement, controlling whether they may leave and collecting most of their wages," it said. This, according to the report, "is the definition of forced labor."

Song Young-Chae, a Seoul-based academic and human rights activist with the Worldwide Coalition to Stop Genocide in North Korea, says Pyongyang is "effectively conducting slavery of its own people and for its own profit."

"This is just a terrible situation, and we know that it is not happening only at Yelabuga," he told DW. "We know there are construction workers in the occupied Ukrainian territories, North Koreans in lumber camps and, of course, tens of thousands of soldiers have been sent to fight — and die — on the front lines in Ukraine," Song added.

"Life in North Korea is not easy, but these people are being sent to Russia as slaves, with no freedom, and they are only allowed to keep a fraction of the money they earn," he said.

The challenge, he admits, is to find a way to halt this "trade in humanity." 

How much can realistically be done?

"These countries share a border, so it is easy to transport workers, and no other agency can intervene," Song said. "Russia and China are both permanent members of the UN Security Council but are ignoring its resolutions on this issue. There is very little that can be done."

Song's rights organization is attempting to highlight the plight of North Korean workers and to create a "coalition of like-minded nations and agencies" to protect laborers — although he admits to being "pessimistic."

Pinkston shares those concerns, as well as fears over the emergence of a powerful bloc that appears to be "ripping up the post-World War II order on the rule of law and human rights" and is intent on taking a confrontational approach to other nations.

The weapons being manufactured at Yelabuga will assist in achieving those aims, he said.

"UN Security Council resolutions on North Korean workers, on weapons proliferation, on the sale of dual-use technologies are all being ignored, so I think we can say that the UN's sanctions regime is pretty much dead," Pinkston added.

North Korea developing its drone capabilities

It is clear that both Russia and Ukraine have gained important insights into the modern battlefield through their ongoing conflict, Pinkston said, with the emergence of drone technology arguably one of the most critical advances.

"And like everyone else, North Korea has been watching closely, 'learning-by-doing' and innovating its own drone capabilities," Pinkston said, adding that there are "serious implications" for the South Korean military as it also attempts to keep up its defensive capabilities against a new generation of drones in the North. 

To curb the deployment of North Korean laborers to Russia and the proliferation of weapons, the joint report calls on the US State Department to work with other countries to disrupt human trafficking networks and sanction those responsible.

It also urges the UN to work multilaterally to investigate the Yelabuga complex and to catalogue the abuses that have taken place. Moreover, it demands accountability for those who have carried out abuses and for victims to be protected.

The report adds that foreign companies that are operating as part of the Yelabuga special economic zone — there are "several" European companies and at least one US firm with a presence at the site — should be pressured to leave.

Edited by: Emmy Sasipornkarn

On July 20, Navkiran Natt and her partner set out for the magistrate's office in New Delhi to get married. They arrived to find a tense situation, with police gathering to break up a youth-led march on Parliament. Office staff — and the couple's wedding witnesses — were running late due to barricades. 

The protest movement known as the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) had announced the march to demand the resignation of India's then-Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. 

The protesters were met with heavy resistance from security forces, who had deployed batons, tear gas and pellet-firing shotguns, leading to injuries and mass detentions.

Less than three months later, on October 10, Natt left home early in the morning and spent the day crisscrossing the locked-down Indian capital looking for a protest she could join. 

"The success of this protest is not how many people will reach Jantar Mantar," she told DW, referring to the protest site in central New Delhi. "It's that even after all this barricading and state violence, people are leaving their homes to join."

What are these protests about?

The CJP began as a satirical online movement after the chief justice of India, Surya Kant, referred to unemployed young people as "cockroaches" in an offhand remark. The name is an ironic riff on the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). 

After succeeding in seeing Pradhan step down in late July, the CJP is now demanding the resignation of the country's controversy-hit Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, after more than 130 million names were removed from draft electoral rolls nationwide.

With CJP leadership in judicial custody or under threat of detention, one name has fast become synonymous with the demonstrations: student leader Neha Bora, who prefers to use the pronoun they/them. 

Bora has run through the streets to dodge police officials, climbed barricades in the face of security personnel, shouted slogans from detention vans and addressed press conferences alongside CJP spokespersons and others. 

They are the president of the All India Students' Association, the student wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation (CPI-ML). 

"In extremely disappointing, fearful, tyrannical times, people try to gather hope from whatever source they can … If these people are fighting, then probably we can also fight," Bora told DW.

"It is a responsibility that you owe to people," they added. 

Women out on the streets in large numbers

The Cockroach-led demonstrations also come at a time when women and members of the LGBTQ+ community are calling for greater autonomy for women in the aftermath of the gang rape of a 17-year-old girl in New Delhi in late September, placing the issue of safety in India back into the spotlight.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, 441,534 cases of crimes against women were registered in 2024, averaging 1,210 cases per day. Experts say these official statistics can only give a partial account of gendered violence. 

But despite facing sexualized backlash from police on the streets and from online mobs, the women and genderqueer people leading the movement reject being cast as victims. 

"The "beti bachao" [save the daughter] thing just doesn't cut it with this generation. It is a very specific ask: see us as political beings, free beings," activist Kavita Krishnan told DW. 

"Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao" (Save the Daughter, Educate the Daughter) is a flagship BJP government program launched in 2015.

Protest as daily life

These days, Gurmehar Kaur's day starts like any other — a workout or a yoga class — and often ends with Indian Youth Congress' lawyers getting her released from police detention. 

"Resistance can't be a separate event … a big day, and then you go back to your regular life," she told DW.

The 29-year-old author of "The Young and the Restless: Youth and Politics in India" spent a better part of the last decade in the public eye. 

This year, she joined the youth wing of India's main opposition party, The Congress, whose offices are located a stone's throw away from Jantar Mantar, the hub of the last wave of protests.

Kaur said her political association has given her access to resources that can support the movement, offering a safety net for protesters "regardless of their political affiliation."

At a time when authorities are cracking down on CJP protesters, she said opposition members like her have a duty to fulfill: "Show up, put your body on the line."

Price of visibility

But showing up often comes with a cost, especially for women and queer protesters. 

Kaur explained how male colleagues often "feel quite elated when their photos are in the media." However, for her, "attention is equal to death and rape threats and humiliation and abuse."

Navkiran Natt, an activist most significantly associated with the 2020–2021 farmers' protests, echoes Kaur's experience.

"If a woman is leading the protest, the first attack is on her sexuality," she said. 

Social media images have shown women protesters with their clothes torn during clashes with police.

Delhi officials have denied allegations of manhandling, adding that women protesters were treated with "dignity."

Student leader Bora refuted the police's claim, saying that a small number of female personnel were available to handle a large number of female protesters.

"Several women protesters came to protect me and prevent me from getting detained," they said. 

Authorities have registered a police case against a journalist who accused a senior Delhi police officer of sexual harassment under an Indian law meant to prevent crimes against members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. They say her own allegations are under investigation.

The internet was also flooded with AI-made, sexualized images of women protesters edited into protest photos.

Why activists say the tactic is failing

This has not prevented protesters from taking to the streets even the day after being detained by authorities. 

"They don't know what they're dealing with," activist Krishnan said, referring to the government's crackdown on demonstrators.

She said authorities assume sexual humiliation will scare women off, but "this is not a generation that thinks of… sexual violence as being something shameful."

She was at the forefront of demonstrations after the 2012 "Nirbhaya" gang rape, where slogans like "Hang the rapists" were seen in public. This time, however, she said the anger "is not going to be about masculine displays of honor."

It is about "dignity and freedom ... Women face all kinds of problems in every country, and Indian women are no different," she added. 

Krishnan said the youth-led protests are part of a wider global wave against "civilizational, cultural nationalism," which uses gender and the language of protection, whether of daughters, families or tradition, to rally support against minorities, immigrants and trans people. 

"You listen to the rhetoric of Donald Trump or Viktor Orban or the Alternative for Germany (AfD). It is the same," she said, referring to politics in the United States and Europe. "If you look at what's happening in India, you may be able to better understand what's happening in your country."

These young Indians, she said, are refusing to be taken in. They are "fighting back for a language of the future, a language that has hope."

Edited by: Wesley Rahn

Genghis Khan is one of history's most radical figures. A blood-thirsty invader whose conquests caused the deaths of an estimated 40 million people, he was also a visionary political thinker who established the largest contiguous land empire in history. 

The founder of the Mongolian Empire died in 1227. Ahead of the 800th anniversary of his death, Berlin's James-Simon-Galerie explores his legacy and the "Mongol Century" (1250–1350) in the exhibition "Genghis Khan and the World of the Mongols."

The power of a disruptive individual

The ruler remains "incredibly relevant" to this day, says Matthias Wemhoff, the director of the exhibition project.

"What the era of Genghis Khan — the 'Mongol century,' if you will — vividly demonstrates is how quickly established structures can collapse, how rapidly vast empires can vanish from the map and how swiftly the entire landscape can be utterly transformed," the archaeologist tells DW.

The charismatic leader's unprecedented impact on the world also evokes present-day disruptive individuals who are triggering sudden, unpredictable societal shifts, says Wemhoff: "There's always been this question: Are world politics shaped by individuals or rather by groups and sociological processes?"

In this case, the answer is clear, says the museum director, who also co-wrote a 2026 book on the nomadic leader. 

"If Genghis Khan hadn't existed, the course of world history would truly have been entirely different — so much of it is inextricably linked to his person," Wemhoff says.

The founder of the world's largest empire

Genghis Khan was born as Temujin around the year 1162. His father, a Mongol chieftain called Yesugei, died when he was still a child. His family was abandoned by its tribe. To secure his familial position, Temujin killed his older half-brother, Bekter, when he was still a young teenager.

Thanks to his charismatic personality, he built alliances and found followers who helped him become the sole ruler on the Mongolian steppe. He formally adopted the title of Genghis Khan in 1206.

At its peak, the Mongol Empire covered approximately 24 million square kilometers (about 9.3 million square miles), stretching from China and Korea to parts of Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and accounting for over 16% of the Earth's total land area.

Wemhoff lists various innovations under his rule: For one, Genghis Khan transformed warfare. Commanders were promoted for skill, discipline and loyalty rather than based on aristocratic rank or tribal loyalties. Soldiers were organized into decimal units of 10, 100, 1,000 and 10,000.

Despite being illiterate by modern standards, he also pushed for the introduction of the first written script for the Mongolian language, which allowed to build a state bureaucracy, track population and tax registers, record decrees, issue legal decisions and handle diplomacy.

A set of laws were established that replaced fragmented tribal customs with a unified legal system.

Trade was simplified through his adoption of a paper currency.

A policy of religious freedom was also established across the Mongol Empire, allowing all individuals to practice their chosen faith without state coercion.

Before the Mongol Empire, the Silk Road was fragmented by local conflicts and heavy taxes. Mongol rule placed the entire route under a single authority, making long-distance travel vastly safer.

The Mongol Empire is known as a period of relative political stability, economic growth and cultural exchange, an era historians call the "Pax Mongolica."

But "it all came with incredible levels of cruelty. The millions of people who fell victim to the Mongols — the mass executions, the abuse of women — this happened on a scale previously unheard of," notes Wemhoff.

Shifting centers of power

The exhibition opens with a raid that happened after Genghis Khan's death, but took place just 260 kilometers (around 160 miles) away from Berlin: the 1241 Battle of Legnica, in Silesia, Poland.

It embodies the brutality and intensity of the Mongols' methods.

There came the "highly mobile, agile Mongols on small horses — lightly armored in lamellar gear, wearing helmets that left the face exposed, and wielding bows capable of firing 20 or more arrows in a single minute," points out Wemhoff.

European knights, heavily armored and mounted on large, massive warhorses, didn't stand a chance against their enemies.

"When a hail of arrows rained down on them, the horses eventually went down, and the knights ended up lying on the ground, stuck on their back, much like a June bug," he adds. "The two styles of combat were simply mismatched."

The Mongols' western campaigns shifted historic power centers in a way that still impacts world politics today.

For example, after the Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus', which was the first East Slavic state, its thriving capital Kyiv was reduced to a depopulated ruin. Moscow became a key regional power, partly because it chose to cooperate with the Mongols rather than pursue resistance.

"In our Western European collective memory, the Mongol invasion plays hardly any role. It's something of an anecdote," says Wemhoff, noting that the era of Genghis Khan and his immediate successors is barely mentioned in standard Western European school curricula.

Germans are mainly familiar with the name of the empire's founder through the 1979 Euro-disco pop band Dschingis Khan, which represented West Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest with a campy song of the same name that reduced complex history to extreme tropes.

But in eastern Europe, the Mongol invasions "changed everything fundamentally," says Wemhoff. "And so fundamentally that we still feel the consequences of it today."

The exhibition "Genghis Khan and the World of the Mongols" runs from October 21, 2026, to April 18, 2027.

Edited by Helen Whittle

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio kicks off a three-day visit to India on Monday in the finance hub of Mumbai, before heading to Jamnagar, home to a major oil refinery owned by industrial titan Reliance Industries.

Rubio's business-oriented visit comes as trade talks remain stalled amid continued ambiguity on punitive measures from the US over India's purchases of Russian oil. 

Reliance is a top buyer of Venezuelan oil. The refinery can process 1.4 million barrels of crude oil a day, so it's a valuable exporter of diesel fuel for global markets. The refinery has also been a major buyer of Russian Urals crude, making it a significant part of India's energy relationship with Russia.

In March, Washington unveiled plans for a new oil refinery in Texas, backed by Reliance.

US President Donald Trump has put the value of the project at $300 billion (€258 billion) and presented it as a way to help reduce the US trade deficit with India. Whether the project moves forward, and on what terms, will be closely watched.

An elusive US-India trade deal

Since taking office for a second time in 2025, Trump has gone back and forth on tariff threats with India over what he considers to be unfair trade practices, along with India's continued purchases of Russian oil amid the war in Ukraine.

In February 2026, Trump announced a "trade deal" that slashed US tariffs on Indian goods, in exchange for India lowering trade barriers and halting purchases of Russian oil. Trump had claimed that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to stop buying Russian oil. However, this has never been confirmed by New Delhi.

While maritime data from Kpler, a commodities and energy-market intelligence company, showed Indian refiners briefly diversified supply away from Russia to avoid tightening sanctions, India's deep reliance on discounted Russian crude continues to be a cornerstone of its energy strategy. Russia remains India's top supplier of crude oil.

In mid-September, Trump signed the "Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act," imposing 100% tariffs on top buyers of Russian oil and gas, which includes India.

However, last week, just days before the legislation was due to go into effect, Trump signed an executive order pausing the sanctions.

Rubio: Trade deal 'very close'

Before traveling to India, Rubio was in Uzbekistan for a meeting of the "C5+1" diplomatic platform comprising the US and five Central Asian countries. In remarks on the sidelines, Rubio said trade talks with India are taking place with the sanctions waivers in mind.

"We have had to waive sanctions over the past few months, looking at the global supplies, looking at global prices, and the impact it was having on other countries," he said.

"We're trying to finalize a trade deal with India right now. We're very close to doing that," Rubio added.

In an interview with Indian broadcaster NDTV, US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor said that Jamnagar could be a valuable source of diesel for the US.

Foreign policy analyst C Raja Mohan of Jindal Global University in India told DW that Rubio skipping a visit to the Indian capital in favor of Mumbai and Jamnagar should not be considered a diplomatic snub, as the refinery has international importance amid the global energy crunch brought on by the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

He said Jamnagar is an "important node in global trade" because it processes Russian oil and serves as a conduit for refined Russian petroleum products reaching Western markets.

Although Trump's sanctions reprieve offers New Delhi temporary relief, the underlying threat remains. Washington retains the option of imposing punitive tariffs, leaving Russian oil as a potential source of leverage in wider trade negotiations.

Former Indian ambassador to the US, Meera Shankar, cautioned against reading too much into Rubio's decision to skip Delhi amid political criticism in India.

"The focus of his current trip is on energy, and he is visiting the Reliance refinery in Jamnagar," she told DW. "The high price of fuel, particularly diesel, has become a political liability for the Trump administration, which wants to be seen taking action on this issue."

Diesel prices have skyrocketed around the world following the Iran war and the ensuing disruption of supply from the Middle East. In waiving Russia sanctions, Trump has tried to blame Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil facilities as being the cause of high prices.

Shankar pointed to Reliance's proposed Texas refinery, noting that the state is "one of the states in play" in the upcoming midterm elections in the US.

"Some forward movement on the investment would be welcome," she said.

Trump eroding trust in Delhi?

The two governments continue to describe their ties as a comprehensive global strategic partnership spanning defence, trade, technology and energy.

Analyst Mohan argued that describing the US-India relationship as uniquely transactional was misleading.

"Every nation ultimately acts out of national self-interest, rather than pure altruism or shared values," he said.

The current friction, in his view, is part of a normal negotiation between two sovereign powers, not proof that the partnership was failing.

Besides Russian oil, another potential area of complication is the Trump administration suspending a scheme allowing US companies to sponsor skilled foreign workers.

On October 8, the Trump administration suspended new and pending applications under the US Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) program at several technology companies amid investigations into alleged visa fraud and the displacement of US workers.

The process is a key step for employers seeking permanent residency for foreign staff, including Indian professionals.

Harsh Pant, vice president for studies and foreign policy at the Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation (ORF), said Trump's own words and actions had damaged ties despite regular high-level engagement.

"Even as he calls Prime Minister Modi a good friend, he has damaged the relationship by targeting India, and his supporters have been targeting Indians," Pant told DW.

Pant said inconsistent messaging from Washington was eroding trust and could have consequences well beyond Trump's presidency.

"The sense that America is unreliable, that America can't be trusted, is beginning to come back into policy discourse," he said.

The damage, he warned, could reach beyond government-to-government relations to Indian students, professionals and the middle class, whose goodwill has helped sustain ties through earlier disagreements.

"If public sentiment goes against a country, then it becomes very difficult for the policy-makers to craft an alternative policy,” Pant said, adding that US actions affecting Indian students and professionals "will have consequences."

Edited by: Wesley Rahn 

At a glance, Ray Boe doesn't stand out from the tens of thousands of other foreign workers toiling at countless construction sites that push Bangkok's soaring skyline ever higher.

Unlike most of them, though, the 31-year-old came to Thailand's capital from one of the country's nine camps for refugees who have fled decades of civil strife inMyanmar.

The camps, which hug the Thai-Myanmar border, are home to more than 100,000 people — in some cases since the 1980s, when the refugees first started arriving.

Until a year ago this month, the Thai government had refused to let them leave the camps to find work, forcing most to live hand-to-mouth on foreign donor aid.

That changed in October 2025, after foreign aid cutbacks — mostly by the United States — forced the camps to slash the food support and healthcare they could provide.

Around the same time, fighting between Thailand and Cambodia over territorial claims had sent hundreds of thousands of migrant workers from Cambodia back home, leaving behind a yawning labor gap. 

Myanmar refugees allowed to work outside of camps

To cope with the aid cuts and labor deficit, the Thai government reversed decades of policy and began issuing the refugees permits to work outside the camps, to help them meet their own needs.

Ray Boe is one of the 6,800 camp refugees the government said have entered the Thai labor force in the first year of the program.

"After the cuts by USAID and other organizations, there is no more regular support for our daily needs, like rice and other rations. And there is not enough healthcare in the camps anymore," he said.

The cuts forced him and his parents to borrow from neighbors and to pare down their already modest meals.

Since last month, he has earned 400 baht (about $12) a day pouring concrete and erecting scaffolding around what's to be a 12-story apartment building in central Bangkok. He hopes to start sending money home soon.

"It will help us pay for food and other basic needs, and for health are for my parents," Ray Boe said.

"Compared to how we were living in the camp before, it will be a big difference, having my own income and supporting my family on my own, not having to wait for other people to support us day to day," he told DW. 

Refugee work program offers hope, but faces a rocky start

The program allows the refugees to work in 43 of Thailand's 76 provinces and in any sector not reserved by law for Thai citizens only.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the government has improved the vocational training on offer inside the camps to better prepare refugees for work outside.

"We are hopeful that this policy would enhance opportunities and empower the [refugees] to realize their potential, as well as contribute to Thai socioeconomic development," said Praporn Waenluang, an official in the ministry's information department.

Labor and refugee rights groups have welcomed the program.

"I have met a lot of camp [refugees] who have come outside and worked. They are so happy to work and earn money, a lot of money compared to what they [can] get in the camp," said Siwawong Sooktawee, Thailand project coordinator for the International Detention Coalition.

"This is good because they feel they can help themselves, they can support themselves, not depend on aid anymore," he added.

Yet he and others have said the program has gotten off to a slow start, with many flaws to work out.

They said many of the refugees who have taken part have not been given contracts by their employers, only to find the conditions rougher, the work harder, or the pay lower than what they were promised before leaving the camps. The program also lacks a clear system for lodging and settling complaints, according to observers.

"Many refugees go, come back, go, come back so many times. Some refugees, their families have to raise funds or borrow money in the refugee camps so that their father or their family member will be able to return," said K'nyaw Paw, general secretary of the Karen Women's Organization, an NGO serving the camp's ethnic Karen group.

Financial burdens placed on Myanmar refugees

Siwawong and K'nyaw Paw said refugees are sometimes made to repay employers through wage deductions for hiring them, including medical exams, government permits and transportation to job sites. As a result, they often start work already in debt, sometimes without prior warning.

Akwah, a father of two who goes by one name, left his camp with 20 other refugees in November 2025 for what was supposed to be a job harvesting sugarcane on a farm on the other side of the country for 250 baht per day.

When he arrived, however, he was told to cut eucalyptus trees — a much more difficult and dangerous job, he said — for only 200 baht per day. Workers had to sleep outdoors, with no electricity and only a nearby pond for water.

"We spoke to the boss, but the boss did not care. He said, 'Just do the work because you are already here.' But we said we could not do it," said Akwah. They left after three months.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not reply to DW's request for comment on the program's alleged problems. The Labor and Interior ministries, which mainly oversee the program, did not reply to requests for an interview either.

Rights groups say program still needs to improve

Siwawong and K'nyaw Paw said refugees who take part should be guaranteed clear and detailed contracts — translated if needed into Burmese, Karen or Karenni, the main languages spoken in the camps — and an easy-to-access system for filing and settling complaints.

They also suggest that the government open more provinces up to the program and screen the job brokers coming to the camps as middlemen, to weed out the unscrupulous ones.

They said their NGOs and others are working with the government on making some of the upgrades, and that they're hopeful the program will improve with time, so that more of the refugees are able and willing to take part.

For all the program's flaws, though, they said most of the refugees are still eager to apply, even those who have run into problems.

"I had a bad experience, but I still want to go again, because food in the camp is a problem," said Mu Dah Hsit, who fell ill at her job and had to quit after her boss refused to cover the health insurance the program is supposed to guarantee.

"I have no mother, and a father who is sick, and siblings I have to take care of," she said. "So, I have to go; otherwise, we cannot live." 

Edited by: Emmy Sasipornkarn

For ten years, publishers rejected You Yeong-Gwang's book. Yet before it was even printed in South Korea, the once-abandoned manuscript had international publishers flocking to secure translation rights.  

"I'm so grateful that the book has now been published in more than 20 countries. Even more astonishingly, it also appeared on the Der Spiegel bestseller list in Germany," he told DW while attending the 2026 Frankfurt Book Fair. 

For a debut novel by an unknown author, it was a massive success, securing publication in 15 languages, including English, German, Spanish and traditional Chinese.

"The Rainfall Market" tells the story of a mysterious, hidden shop that only opens when it rains. In the shop, visitors can exchange their deepest unhappiness for a ticket to a brand-new destiny. The plot revolves around Serin, a disheartened young girl who stumbles into the marketplace run by whimsical spirits, finding a warm, comforting space.  

"In fact, Serin's story is my story," author You said. "For a long time, I even wondered how wonderful it would be if I could sell my unhappiness and use the money to buy happiness."  

While writing the book, he was going through a difficult time himself.  

"I had to care for my mother, who had been ill for a long time, and I had also been responsible for supporting my family financially for many years. Life felt incredibly heavy," he reflected. 

"But when I was writing, I could immerse myself in the world of the story and, even if only for a short while, forget about those circumstances. That's why writing made me so happy. I truly enjoyed it." 

On the creation of 'The Rainfall Market'

The idea of rain is inspired by his own life.

"At that time, my circumstances felt as though it were raining constantly," You said.

The story draws heavily on traditional Korean folklore, serving as a quintessential "healing fiction" tale in which its young protagonist must weigh the true cost of seemingly perfect lives.

"When I was writing, I wasn't consciously trying to write healing fiction. At the time, I didn't even really know that such a label existed." 

He initially planned to publish a book independently and started crowdfunding. But as the funding failed, he used all his savings and printed 200 copies, which bookstores refused to take. In a month, he only sold five copies. "I thought that's it. I really have to give up now.” 

"At the time, I had undergone eye surgery and due to complications, I couldn't see, so I started working at a call center, where I could work using my voice." You said. "During the week, I worked at a call center, and on weekends I went to a computer academy. I learned how to make books on my own for a few years."

He then taught himself how to use the software needed to create books on his own.

While running one of the crowdfunding campaigns, he started working as a food delivery driver. "The round trip between my home and the area where I delivered food took about four hours each day. So I wrote on my phone's memo app while traveling on the subway." 

"Even when I was going through very difficult circumstances, I was able to keep writing because the moments when I was writing were so joyful. For a little while, I could forget about the difficult situation I was in," You explained. 

Finally a breakthrough

"I gathered those pieces of writing together and launched what I intended to be my final crowdfunding campaign," he said.

The campaign was intended to fund the publication of "The Rainfall Market."

"To my amazement, the campaign succeeded, and I was able to publish the book commercially for the first time," he said.

Following the crowdfunding success, the novel was acquired by Clayhouse, a prominent South Korean publishing company. 

Before it was even published, he had received offers from publishers in five countries and signed international publishing contracts. 

And in the first month after publication, the original South Korean language edition sold 30,000 copies across all formats, ranking as the bestselling e-book and third-bestselling physical book.

"I still find it hard to believe that all of this has happened and that I'm here at the Frankfurt Book Fair. I'm incredibly grateful and happy," said You.  

A new horizon for Hallyu, or the 'Korean Wave:' K-Comfort Fiction 

Korea's newest soft power is K-literature, which sold about 1.2 million translated copies abroad in 2025 for the second consecutive year.

And You's book belongs to a trending genre called Korean comfort fiction.  

"When readers closed the book, I wanted them to feel a little warmth in their hearts," he said. 

Although Korean literature was first known for darker, more pragmatic books about societal realities, K-comfort fiction is the child of South Korea's pressure-cooker modern society. It offers an answer to the human need for escapism and a transient antidote to the reality of a hyper-competitive education system, brutal job market and intense corporate pressure. 

"When I was writing, I was going through a very difficult time myself, and I wished someone would comfort me. So, I thought, why don't I try reading something like that myself? Why don't I write something that can comfort me?" You wondered. 

With burnout on the rise globally, more readers are seeking soul-soothing literature with exhausted protagonists they can relate to. Usually without a need to defeat a villain, the stories follow protagonists with a deep desire for rest, community and emotional repair.  

The whimsical fiction aspect is the missing element allowing them to step away from reality. The genre originally gained traction through indie productions, online crowdfunding and endorsements from high-profile K-pop artists.

Despite the Korean context, this style of storytelling quickly went global, capturing different international audiences, including those already familiar with cozy K-dramas or those simply looking for a gentle refuge from the anxieties of the modern world. 

Last year, the bestselling Korean novel abroad was "Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop," according to the Literature Translation Institute of Korea. The novel belongs to the same genre as "The Rainfall Market."  

While readers embrace the genre, critics view it with literary skepticism. They point out that it relies heavily on a predictable, repetitive formula, often built around a single magical space, with simplistic prose and low-stakes conflicts that prioritize cozy vibes over deep character development. 

Reviewing "The Rainfall Market" for the Korea Times, Peter Juhl, a literary critic, described healing fiction as light, feel-good stories and argued the boom reflects a deliberate effort to write global novels for international markets. 

Future aspirations and message to readers 

"Of course I'm happy that my book is receiving so much love and that I'm able to write. But more than anything, I hope my mother gets better and regains her health," You said after mentioning that his mother underwent surgery a week before his arrival at the book fair. 

Beyond the book itself, people seem to relate to and appreciate the story of his own life.

"If I have the opportunity, I'd like to share more stories about hope and dreams with people who are going through circumstances similar to mine," said You. "If my story can help one person even a little, in any way, I don't think anything could make me happier."

Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru

In a dark underground hideout, dim light spills from a handful of oil lamps. A comrade fiddles with a rifle. A red flag hangs on one of the roughly hewn stone walls, bearing a hammer and sickle on a white star — the symbol of the ChineseWorkers' and Peasants' Red Army. Weapons are scattered on the ground. One is picked up, and soon the action moves into the snowy forest, where gunfire erupts among the trees.

Such a scene could fit in a new installment of "Call of Duty," the popular first-person shooter game that transports players to battlefields past, present, and future. But it is actually from "The Defiant." The game is currently being developed by the Chinese studio Hoothanes Technology in Hangzhou. It tells the story of Chinese forces fending off the Japanese army in the 1930s and 1940s.

Developer Connor Xu tells DW the weapons featured in the game are unique. They were used only in Asia and are therefore unfamiliar to many Western players, he says. The same goes for the story, which Xu says has never before been told in a video game.

"The Defiant" is also designed to appeal to an international audience. In just a few years, China has emerged as a major player in the global gaming industry despite strict regulations, censorship and a former ban on video game consoles.

Gaming is part of everyday life in China

More than 700 million people in China regularly play video games. According to market research company Newzoo, most consider gaming an important part of their lives. Many use games to stay in touch with friends.

"Games make life more interesting," developer Xu says. "I can try different roles, different stories, different characters, because we only have one life to live, but we can play a role in another story. That's really attractive, I think, to Chinese users."

People in China primarily play games on PCs and smartphones, while consoles are much less common. There are historical reasons for that: While gamers in Europe and North America debated whether PlayStation or Xbox was the better console in the early 2000s, the devices were not officially sold in China between 2000 and 2014. Chinese authorities said the restrictions were intended to protect children and teenagers from becoming addicted to gaming.

Limits on gaming time and extensive controls

Minors in China are currently allowed to play online games for no more than three hours a week. There are no such limits for adults, but gaming is subject to strict controls. Anyone who wants to play must register using their real name and a personal identification number. That effectively allows the state to track who plays what and when, as well as whom they communicate with.

There is also a gray area that the Chinese government appears to tolerate. Some players log in using VPNs, giving them access to games that are not officially available in China. Some younger players use their parents' accounts to get around the limits on gaming time.

Despite its strict controls on underage gamers, China has become increasingly receptive to video games in general, having recognized the industry's enormous economic potential. Early on, games released for Chinese players often appeared to be copies of Western titles. At the same time, Chinese tech companies such as Tencent and NetEase invested in numerous Western gaming companies.

No license? No sales in China

One distinctive feature of the Chinese market is its licensing system. "Unlike a lot of the other big video games markets in the world, China has a tightly regulated and licensed official video games market," George E. Osborn tells DW. The journalist advises NGOs and governments on video games and spoke at the Gamescom congress. In his book "Power Play," he describes how authoritarian states use video games to pursue political objectives. 

The rule for all games in China is simple: No license, no sales. "That system essentially forces developers who want to release their video games to go through multiple layers of approval from China's Ministry of Propaganda, Ministry of Culture," Osborn says.

Strict criteria for video games

Games are prohibited from containing material that threatens China's unity, sovereignty or territorial integrity, among other restrictions. Pornographic content and gambling are also banned. Games may not incite crimes that threaten national security or spread information authorities believe could disrupt public order.

"The whole point around this criteria is that it's deliberately designed to be pretty vague," Osborn says. Whether a game violates the rules is a matter of interpretation. Sometimes games are altered even after release. In the 2025 action role-playing game "Wuchang: Fallen Feathers," for example, enemies based on famous Chinese figures from the Ming Dynasty suddenly could no longer be killed. Instead, they would collapse from exhaustion.

Chinese culture is an international hit

The Chinese action role-playing game "Black Myth: Wukong" became an unexpected international hit in 2024. By then, it was clear Chinese developers could do more than cater to the domestic market — they could create successful games for a global audience as well. The game was inspired by the 16th-century Chinese literary classic "Journey to the West."

Osborn sees nothing wrong with bringing Chinese culture to audiences around the world. The question, he says, is how much the state actually intervenes in the games themselves. "I think in general, video game players are actually quite deeply skeptical of these kinds of things. They are generally very good at spotting when someone might be selling to them or someone might be propagandizing. And so I think if it's too obvious, it won't work," he says.

The problem of self-censorship

Because of the licensing system, Western developers also have to comply with government requirements if they want to sell their games in China. And they do want to, Osborn says, because the market is too big to ignore. "But I think when you start thinking about the potential impact this has on creative standards around the world, I think it's really important that developers ask themselves the question of what will we or won't we compromise on here?"

He fears the real danger lies in self-censorship. That could lead developers, for example, to leave queer characters out of their games. That would represent a major step backward, he says, because games help many people explore their identities.

China is not the only country where games are modified to comply with national regulations. In Germany, for example, symbols that violate the country's constitution, such as the swastika, may not be shown in games unless the game in question explicitly contributes to the country's culture of remembrance. Depictions of extreme violence also have to be removed from German versions.

History from a Chinese perspective

Glorifying violence is prohibited in China, too, yet Xu's team is still allowed to develop a war game. How does this add up? Xu explains it this way: "I think in this game, the most important thing is not violence. The most important thing is to tell history."

Xu says the team is committed to delivering a historically accurate product. Whether it succeeds will be for historians to judge.

This article was translated from German and edited by Sarah Hucal.