In September 2021, El Salvador became the first country to make bitcoin legal tender, requiring all businesses to accept the cryptocurrency. In an attempt to popularize and regularize its use, the government gave citizens financial incentives to download a special cryptocurrency app.

Security forces in El Salvador surrounded Tutunichapa, a poor neighborhood of the nation's capital, after a vow from President Nayib Bukele to root out drug gangs.

Since March 27, El Salvador has been living under a state of emergency imposed by controversial young leader Nayib Bukele. The move aims to deal a blow to the criminal gangs who have made the small Central American country one of the most dangerous in the world.

El Salvador's president is waging war on gang violence. But human rights advocates tell DW that waves of mass arrests in the Central American country have swept innocent people into a violent, and deadly, prison system.

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A court in El Salvador has sentenced a woman to 30 years in prison because she suffered an obstetric emergency that ended her pregnancy. Abortions are banned in the Central American country.

Although El Salvador has seen a fall in the number of homicides, the country suffers from another type of crime that the government avoids talking about. Gangs are stepping up kidnappings and forced disappearances, terrorising the most vulnerable, who increasingly end up dead. Faced with the authorities' silence, who keep no official register, victims' loved ones are speaking out. Our regional correspondents Laurence Cuvillier and Matthieu Comin report.

In September 2021, El Salvador became the first nation in the world to make bitcoin its official currency, along with the US dollar. The experiment in the small Central American country was considered groundbreaking by some and too risky by others. Seven months on, our regional correspondents take a look at how it has changed the lives of Salvadorians, for better or for worse.

An internet watchdog said an operator of the Israeli firm NSO Group's Pegasus was working almost exclusively in El Salvador in early 2020. El Salvador government denied using the sophisticated spyware.

Thousands of Salvadorans march in San Salvador against the use of bitcoin in the economy and against a decree that ordered the dismissal of a third of the nation’s judges.

The value of Bitcoin has plunged by more than 10 percent after El Salvador on Tuesday became the first country in the world to accept the cryptocurrency as legal tender. The launch was marred by protests and technical difficulties with the digital wallet app, which had to be taken offline for several hours. Also today, we report on tourism businesses in the southwest of France that have benefitted from the recent spell of good weather, which has prolonged their summer season.

El Salvador has become the first country in the world to make Bitcoin legal tender, despite surveys showing widespread scepticism about the move. The government has invested more than $20 million in the cryptocurrency in recent days, saying it will open up access to banking for many Salvadorans. Bitcoin will be accepted for payments in parallel with the US dollar. Also today, millions of Americans have lost their unemployment benefits as several pandemic-era welfare programmes have expired.