Author: DW

How long does it take to divorce in your country? In Estonia, the first step of the uncomfortable undertaking can be made in less than a minute — and even without the undesired spouse being present. “It takes 45 seconds to get to the point where it says submit the divorce application,” said Luukas Ilves, until last year the Estonian government’s chief information officer Ilves told DW that divorce application was the last section of public administration that had yet to be digitized, which means the small Baltic state bordering Russia is probably the first fully digitized country in the world.Estonia’s digital administration platforms are easy…

US television host Stephen Colbert has announced that The Late Show, a fixture of late-night stateside broadcasting, will conclude in 2026. The timing has raised questions, coming just days after Colbert criticized his broadcaster CBS’s parent company Paramount over its recent $16 million (€13.8 million) legal settlement with US President Donald Trump. How the news was delivered “Next year will be our last season,” Colbert said. “The network will be ending the show in May [2026].” The news, delivered during his live taping, was met with audible boos from the studio audience. CBS described the decision as “purely a financial one…

We spend 4 hours and 37 minutes on our phones each day, checking them around 58 times, on average. We like to tell ourselves it’s to socialize, for work, or to read the news. But most of us are addicted, and we know it. You can test whether you are on the Smartphone Addiction Scale here.  How prevalent is smartphone addiction? Study after study confirms that people are becoming increasingly addicted to smartphones — in every country tested, and in all ages. In the US, for example, nearly 57% of those asked in a recent survey admitted to being addicted…

Austrian extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner, who jumped down to earth from the stratosphere in a 2012 stunt, died in a paragliding accident in the eastern Italian town of Porto Sant’Elpidio on Thursday. According to local media, the 56-year-old lost consciousness while in flight and then lost control of his paraglider, crashing into a hotel pool and lightly injuring a young female employee. Just hours before, he had posted an image in his Instagram story captioned: “Too much wind.” “Our community is deeply affected by the tragic disappearance of Felix Baumgartner, a figure of global prominence, a symbol of courage and passion…

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Thursday that his country will end its blockade of a new EU sanctions package against Russia.  Slovakia had been holding up the 18th EU sanctions package against Russia over concerns regarding a separate EU plan to stop gas imports from Russia beginning in 2028. Fico: ‘Counterproductive’ to continue blockade of EU sanctions  Any new sanctions package requires unanimous approval from all 27 EU member states. “At this point, it would be counterproductive to continue blocking the 18th sanctions package tomorrow,” Fico said in a video posted on Facebook. He said Slovakia received guarantees from the EU pertaining…

Left-wing Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, commonly known as Lula, condemned US President Donald Trump’s tariff threats and criticism of the Brazilian judiciary in a televised address on Thursday.  Trump has threatened 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods starting from August 1. The US president has said the tariffs would stay in place until legal charges were dropped against former conservative Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.   Bolsonaro is on trial over allegations that he was involved in a coup attempt after the 2022 presidential election, which he lost to Lula. Bolsonaro has denied the allegations.  Lula says Brazilian politicians who back…

Steel is the backbone of German industry — but it’s also a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for nearly 7% of Germany’s CO2 emissions. As Germany has pledged to become carbon-neutral by 2045 — five years earlier than the rest of the European Union — the steel industry must cut up to 55 million metric tons of CO₂ annually, which is roughly 30% of all industrial emissions, according to the German Steel Federation lobby group.German steelworks still emit massive amounts of carbon dioxideImage: picture-alliance / dpa In order to make German steel production significantly more sustainable, the previous government…

Theater is a reflection of the human experience, with all its emotions and conflicts. That’s why the team behind this year’s Salzburg Festival, led by artistic director Markus Hinterhäuser, has put together a program that embodies the crises happening around the world. Bloodshed and power struggles are thus dominating not only events in the world today but also the festival itself (July 18 to August 31). The program spans brutal rivalries from antiquity to the First World War. Power in focus There have always been people like Trump and Putin, says Hinterhäuser. The lust for power has been part of…

What you need to know Vibriosis is caused by Vibrio bacteria, which live naturally in brackish, warm, low-salinity coastal waters Typical European locations include the Baltic Sea, North Sea and Black Sea Climate change may be leading to more favorable conditions for Vibrio bacteria Symptoms include: diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea, fever Protect yourself by avoiding raw or undercooked shellfish, and don’t swim in these waters with open wounds  Scientists attribute a lot to climate change these days — with some things being easier to prove than others. When it comes to Vibrio bacterial infections, there appears to be a strong link —…

Heat training is the order of the day on the 2025 Tour de France. Partly because the sun is shining in France and an athlete’s body should be well adapted to the heat, but also because heat training provides an extra performance boost even at more moderate temperatures. “Active heat training was one of the main things that we changed slightly in this preparation. That was the only thing, for the rest, it was a similar preparation as the last four years,” explained Kristof de Kegel, sports scientist and Head of Performance at racing team Alpecin Deceuninck. Mathieu van der…