TikTok lives, digital gifts, PayPal and cryptocurrency deposits are some of the main methods used by scammers that claim to raise money for survivors of the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. In this edition of Truth and Fake, we go through the donation scams to look out for.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Berlin would increase aid by over €22 million. Meanwhile, the UN reports almost 9 million people have been affected by the disaster in Syria. Follow DW for the latest.

Left with no choice, thousands of Syrians living in earthquake-hit parts of Turkey are returning home. There they face everything from attacks by the Syrian government to ongoing uncertainty about a return to Turkey.

Followers of the unorthodox Christian group did not attend the remembrance, organized by Catholic and Protestant churches. Earlier this month, seven people were shot dead by a former member of the congregation.

German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach wants to help those who suffer from serious side-effects of the COVID-19 vaccines. For those affected, this is a long overdue step.

Togo is trying to turn the page on putting French writers first. A growing movement is demanding that the country's rich heritage be better reflected in classes, with more focus on works by local authors.

On Wednesday dozens of people came to identify the remains of their relatives, thought to have starved themselves to death in hope of going to heaven after joining the self-proclaimed Good News International Church, led by Patrick Mackenzie. They sat wailing, outside a morgue in the Kenyan town of Malindi.

Thousands have been displaced by ongoing clashes between soldiers and M23 rebels in eastern DR Congo. Delegates from the UN Security Council have been to meet some of them at the Bushagara camp in Goma. Also, a new exhibition in Senegal bears witness to the suffering of Gambians during the 22-year rule of former president Yahya Jammeh. Finally, we sample the diversity of Cameroonian cuisine.

The watchdogs of EU democracy will have to be "much louder in the future" if they hope to see off a mounting threat from homegrown populists and autocrats who are chipping away at Europe's founding commitments to free speech and the rule of law, a top EU official has warned.

A week after torrential rains triggered deadly floods in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Red Cross volunteers are still working to recover the bodies of victims. With shovels, sticks and bare hands, they struggle to clear caked mud from around a half-buried body.

Victims who were sexually abused within the Catholic Church have cycled hundreds of kilometers from the Bavarian capital to Rome together. They had a meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican to hand over their message.

The European Union sees Romania as one of its frontline states when it comes to the war in Ukraine. The country of 19 million people, a member of both the EU and NATO, has a land and sea border with Ukraine of more than 600 kilometres. It has been a transit hub for weapons supplies to Kyiv.