Author: DW

It’s often easier in retrospect to see how an artist has paved the way for others. Nowadays, making fun of anything and everything is commonplace and even Nazi parodies are a dime a dozen. But it hasn’t always been that way, as a look at the work of director and actor Mel Brooks shows. Born 100 years ago on June 28, 1926, in Brooklyn, New York, the entertainer was clearly a pioneer of satire. The taboo-breaker Though they may have become more common than in the decades following World War II, taking a humorous look at the Nazis may not be…

Bayer is still grappling with tens of thousands of lawsuits over its glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup, which plaintiffs claim causes cancer, primarily non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Germany’s agrochemicals giant inherited the legal mess after taking over Monsanto, the company that produced Roundup, in 2018. Farmers, landscapers and gardeners — mostly based in the United States — argue that Monsanto knew, or should have known, about the risks but failed to provide adequate warnings on product labels. According to the Lawsuit Information Center, Bayer has so far paid out around $11 billion (€9.65 billion) to settle roughly 100,000 cases. Around 61,000 to 65,000 claims remain active. The company has…

Two major earthquakes struck central Venezuela seconds apart on Wednesday, one with a magnitude 7.2 and the other with a magnitude 7.5. At least 164 people have been killed, and hundreds injured. Extensive damage was reported in the capital, Caracas, and the nearby state of La Guaira. Strong earthquakes are unusual in Venezuela, even though it sits near multiple fault lines along the South American and Caribbean tectonic plates. Other countries on the Pacific coast, including Mexico, Chile and the western edge of the United States, are positioned along the seismically active tectonic belt known as the Ring of Fire, responsible for about 90% of…

What to do with one more World Cup group stage game when you’ve already won the group? The answer is score two minutes into the game and don’t look back. Germany did the first part, but then faded as momentum was replaced by a messy loss that exposes this team’s limitations. There is a way to spin this as a defeat that can sharpen the minds, that can blow away any complacency ahead of the knockouts.  Germany captain Joshua Kimmich was certainly bullish in defeat. “We keep inviting the opponent to attack by turning the ball over, which makes them…

The 2026 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, a prestigious award that honors individuals who contribute to the realization of peace through their work, goes to French-British lawyer and author Philippe Sands, the prize’s board of trustees announced on Thursday. “In his literary work, which is distinguished both by narrative brilliance and historical depth, Philippe Sands devotes as much attention to the motives of the perpetrators as to the suffering and lives of the victims,” the jury noted in its statement. “At the heart of his legal work is a commitment to the universal rights of every human being, evidenced in his advocacy for victims…

The German government will buy a 40% stake in European tankmaker KNDS from the families which own it, with a plan to bring its share to the same level as that held by the French government. It sets the stage for a long-awaited IPO (initial public offering) for KNDS on the stock exchange. Berlin had been keen to have an equal share to France before the listing. The stake is expected to be worth around €6 billion ($6.8 billion), depending on the valuation of the company. The plan still requires approval from the German Bundestag’s budget committee. France currently owns…

Los Angeles has been a swirling sea of green Mexico jerseys this World Cup: from the watch parties dotting the sprawling city, to bars, cafes and barber shops blaring matches, and thousands of fans streaming into Los Angeles Stadium. The fact that Mexico has not actually played a match in Los Angeles this tournament has done little to deter fans from proudly displaying their colors, regardless of who’s on the pitch. “After Mexico City, Los Angeles is the second largest Mexican city in the world,” Gary, who was born in Mexico and moved to Southern California as a child, told DW. “Soccer…

How do you put the unspeakable into words? Following the horrors of the Holocaust, this question haunted postwar German authors. They aimed to reject the heritage of the Nazi era while documenting the trauma of bombed-out cities and the country’s starving population. They explored the complexities of collective guilt and individual responsibility. But the German-language literary scene that took up these daunting issues was dominated by male authors. Women’s writing was frequently dismissed as trivial. The anti-fascist and feminist Austrian writer and poet, Ingeborg Bachmann, was one of the few women to assert their voice in the face of a deeply sexist literary industry. The literary icon remains…

Iran faces a long and bumpy road back from its nearly four-month war with the United States and Israel. Before the Iran conflict erupted, the country was already grappling with years of sanctions and international isolation tied to its nuclear program that had cut oil exports — its main income source — roughly in half. The Iranian economy was in dire straits, with inflation close to 50% and severe shortages of basic goods. The war caused a further 10% economic contraction, analysts say, including infrastructure damage and lost oil exports. The memorandum of understanding (MOU) agreed on June 17 offers immediate…

There’s a heat wave  sweeping across large parts of Europe and according to a recent report published in medical journal The Lancet, the number of heat-related deaths has risen across much of Europe. The number of heat warnings in Europe has also increased. The heat alone is enough to put an enormous strain on the body. Fancy a few cold beers to cool off? Better not. With temperatures hovering around 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), alcohol was banned in public spaces in France’s capital, Paris, during the “Fete de la Musique” festival last weekend.Due to the heat wave, Paris banned alcohol…