Author: DW

The announcement turned heads: US art collector Thomas Kaplan, owner of the Leiden Collection — the world’s largest private collection of 17th-century Dutch art — plans to sell portions of his collection. Not the paintings themselves, however, but virtual shares in them. In Rembrandt’s case, there are to be enough shares that even people with modest budgets could buy in. “To my mind the best way to evangelize for Rembrandt is by giving millions, maybe tens of millions, of ordinary people the opportunity to own a Rembrandt,” Kaplan told The Art Newspaper. That raises the question: What does “ownership” really mean…

Never has state support been more critical to the survival of Germany’s auto industry . Thursday’s Autogipfel (“auto summit,” in English) — a high-stakes meeting in Berlin of political leaders, automotive executives and unions — came at a moment of deep crisis as the sector faces stagnation, mass layoffs and a rocky transition to electric vehicles (EVs). Once dominant in engineering and brand prestige, the likes of Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz now lag behind Chinese rivals in software innovation and adopting EVs. China’s BYD, Nio and others are expanding aggressively into the European market, offering cheaper, tech-savvy EVs. US President Donald Trump’s protectionist policies have also dealt a…

Sleep is often seen as a universal human need. But research suggests that women not only sleep differently from men but also need more of it. DW spoke to women in various regions of the world. They all shared stories of needing more rest than they were getting and told us of the toll when they ran into what’s known as sleep debt. Take Sana Akhand, for example: Akhand headed a Human Resources department in New York’s tech industry when she hit a wall of exhaustion, realized it was affecting her mental health, and felt forced to leave the job.…

A FIFPRO report on the 2024-25 football season highlights concerns over the amount of football players in the men’s game are playing. Key findings cover several areas of concern, perhaps most notably continued calendar congestion and extreme heat. The 32-team Club World Cup put an enormous strain on the players, with some, such as Achraf Hakimi, having their seasons stretch over almost an entire year as a result. The report notes that Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Manchester City and Bayern Munich all had their off-seasons and preseasons for the current campaign severely shortened because of the competition. Without improved safeguarding and better load…

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela. The remarks represented a new escalation in the political conflict between the US and Venezuela, as the US has continued to strike boats on international waters, which have originated from the South American nation. Trump accused the government of Venezuela of trafficking drugs to the US by sea. “We are looking at land now, because we’ve got the sea very well under control,” Trump said, in reference to the strikes on vessels in Caribbean waters. “I think Venezuela is feeling heat.”Venezuela: How…

Faulty engineering caused the implosion of a private submersible during a 2023 expedition to the Titanic wreckage, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said Wednesday. The NTSB’s final report comes after a US Coast Guard investigation in August outlined a litany of issues with operator OceanGate’s conduct, as well as design flaws in its Titan submersible, that led to a “preventable tragedy” in which all five passengers were killed. What did the report say? The report concluded that the faulty engineering of the Titan submersible “resulted in the construction of a carbon fiber composite pressure vessel that contained multiple anomalies…

When Jews talk about a person who has died, they commonly use the phrase: “May his [her/their] memory be a blessing.”   Compared to Christianity or Islam, Judaism places little focus on an afterlife. Therefore, mourning rituals focus more on eternal memory among the living. Quick, simple burial   Burying the deceased with dignity is a mitzvah, or commandment, in Judaism. In traditional communities, all remains of a person must be buried for full religious rites to take place, and if a body cannot be recovered or buried, that can be a source of distress for the family. The Taharah is the Jewish practice…

Fertile soils, vast arable land and a history of feeding empires and global markets helped Ukraine become known as the “world’s breadbasket.” With 41.3 million hectares (102 million acres) of farmland, two-thirds of which is covered by so-called black soil — the world’s richest soil — the country yields high crop productivity with minimal inputs from fertilizers, irrigation, labor and heavy machinery. Ukraine’s grain surplus fed the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union, while after independence in 1991, the country became a major food supplier to the world, particularly the Middle East, North Africa and Asia.The UN and Turkey helped Ukraine unblock grain exports to Africa…

In a quest to stamp out tobacco use, Southeast Asia is leading the world — it has massively reduced its tobacco consumption since 2010. It previously had the highest tobacco use per capita, but has dropped to second place on a World Health Organization (WHO) league table. Europe now holds the top spot. Why is this important? Southeast Asia accounts for about a quarter of the world’s population. At the turn of the century, more than 50% of the population (1 in 2 people) in the region, aged 15 years or older, used tobacco. By 2030, it’s expected that fewer than 1…

Israeli gymnasts will not be able to compete at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Jakarta later this month after the world’s highest sports court rejected two requests from the Israeli federation (IGF) for “provisional measures.” In the second and most important appeal launched by the IGF and six gymnasts who had been due to take part in the event, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected a request for it to “take the necessary measures that guarantee Israeli participation in the championships, or in the alternative, to move or to cancel the championships.” CAS added that the FIG argued it could not force the…