World War Two | DD News

May 7, 2026 12:37 PM

Once the city of peace, Geneva sees the United Nations’ presence fade

When in 1937 the League of Nations vacated the 225-room Palais Wilson in Geneva, the global intergovernmental body created to preserve peace after World War One was on its last legs. It died soon afterwards with World War Two. This summer the League's successor, the United Nations, is set to abandon the same building as it and other global bodies in the Swiss city are increasingly sidelined by funding cuts and a U.S. government that is turning its back on multilateralism. Since 2025, over 3,00...

February 5, 2026 12:19 PM

Ukraine, Russia wrap ‘productive’ first day of US-backed peace talks

Ukrainian and Russian officials wrapped up a "productive" first day of new U.S.-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi, Kyiv's lead negotiator said on Wednesday, as fighting in Europe's biggest conflict since World War Two raged on. The two-day trilateral meetings come after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia had exploited a U.S.-backed energy truce last week to stockpile munitions, attacking Ukraine with a record number of ballistic missiles on Tuesday. "The work was substantive and pro...

January 14, 2026 3:47 PM

Deaths outnumber births in France for first time since World War Two

France recorded more deaths than births in 2025 for the first time since the end of World War Two, a development that erodes its long-held demographic advantage over other European Union nations, official figures showed on Tuesday. The national statistics institute INSEE reported 651,000 deaths last year and 645,000 births, which have collapsed in number since the global COVID pandemic. France has traditionally had stronger demographics than most of Europe, but an aging population and falling ...

October 6, 2025 4:03 PM

UN Cultural Agency Votes for New Chief after US withdrawal

UNESCO will choose its next chief on Monday to lead the organisation after President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from it for a second time. While outgoing chief Audrey Azoulay has worked to diversify funding sources, the U.N. culture and education agency still receives about 8% of its budget from Washington. Once the withdrawal takes effect at the end of 2026, that funding will be cut. The White House described UNESCO as supporting "woke, divisive cultural and social causes" when...

September 10, 2025 4:02 PM

Poland is at its closest to open conflict since World War Two: PM Donald Tusk

Poland is the closest it has been to open conflict since World War Two, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Wednesday after the NATO member state shot down Russian drones over its territory. He said Poland had asked NATO to open consultations under Article 4 of its treaty, which states that members of the Western military alliance will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territory, political independence or security of any of them is threatened. Tusk told parliament th...

September 2, 2025 9:43 AM

Xi to flaunt China’s vision of new global order at military parade

Chinese President Xi Jinping will host his country's largest-ever military parade this week, as he seeks to recast Beijing as the custodian of a post-U.S. international order at a time of deep geopolitical uncertainty. More than 20 world leaders including Russia's Vladimir Putin and reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will gather in Beijing for the September 3 "Victory Day" event marking 80 years since Japan's defeat at the end of World War Two. The highly choreographed spectacle aims to...

August 27, 2025 10:27 AM

Taiwan’s denial of communist role in World War Two is ‘blasphemy’, China says

China said on Wednesday Taiwan was "blaspheming" the sacrifices of those who died fighting Japan in World War Two by denying the pivotal role of the communist party and denounced Taipei's call for Taiwanese to stay away from Beijing's commemorations. This year's 80th anniversary of the end of the war, preceded in China by Japan's 1931 takeover of eastern Manchuria and its subsequent invasion of the rest of the country in 1937, has set off a bitter battle of narratives between Beijing and Taipei...