Author: DW

Japan has executed a man convicted of murdering and dismembering nine people, in the country’s first use of the death penalty since 2022. Takahiro Shiraishi — dubbed the “Twitter killer” — strangled eight women and one man to death in 2017 after contacting them on social media platform X, formerly Twitter. The victims — aged between 15 and 26 — had posted about having suicidal thoughts. Shiraishi told them he could aid them in their plans or even die alongside them. He was also convicted of sexually abusing female victims. Shiraishi was sentenced to death in 2020.  No prior notice ahead of…

In the wake of a damning EU review of Israel’s human rights record in Gaza, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez slammed his colleagues for not moving to suspend a trade deal with Israel despite what he called “the catastrophic situation of genocide.” More than 55,000 Palestinians have been killed in the enclave over more than 18 months of Israeli bombardment, according to Hamas-run Gazan authorities. Israel vehemently denies accusations of genocide, maintaining that it is at war with the ruling militant Islamist group Hamas following a massive terror attack on Israeli territory in 2023. In a report distributed to the…

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently announced that his company would reduce its workforce as artificial intelligence (AI) replaces human employees.   He also warned that AI will affect a wide range of jobs and sectors. Jassy is not alone, as many other tech firms have issued similar warnings about how AI breakthroughs could reshape their workforces. In May, the CEO of the AI startup Anthropic told the Arlington, Virginia-based American news website Axios that AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs in the next one to five years. US public companies have reduced the number of their white-collar staff by a…

06/26/2025June 26, 2025German consumers hold back spending despite signs of recoveryGerman consumers are holding back on spending, a study has shown, slowing the recovery in private consumption. Consumer sentiment stagnated in June, halting its recent recovery, according to the data from research groups GfK and the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions (NIM). The consumer climate index has slipped by 0.3 points to -20.3. Although expectations for both the economy and income have improved, GfK and NIM state that “a rising propensity to save is preventing the consumer climate from continuing its recovery.” “After three consecutive increases, the consumer climate has now taken…

What you need to know NB.1.8.1. — also called “Nimbus” — is a subvariant of the dominant Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. It has been detected in South and Southeast Asia and circulating in many EU/EEA countries. It may lead to hospitalizations over the summer. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) recommends boosters for at-risk groups or those working in high-risk settings. Testing is recommended for people who are sick and have symptoms that worsen. European health authorities are warning there may be an increase in COVID-19 infections in the coming months amid the spread of the new…

FIFA are “not taking the dangers of extreme heat seriously enough” and are on course for a “perfect storm” of unsafe conditions at major events like the 2026 World Cup, according to Peter Crisp from environmental advocacy group Fossil Free Football. Speaking after Bayern Munich lost to Benfica in temperatures of 36 degree Celsius (97 Fahrenheit), at the Club World Cup in Charlotte on Tuesday, Crisp told DW that such an outcome, which has become commonplace in recent days at the Club World Cup, should have been entirely predictable to football’s global governors. “This was a very obvious risk. It only took…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed an agreement with the Council of Europe (CoE) on Wednesday to establish a special tribunal to prosecute those accused of orchestrating Russia’s war in Ukraine. Ukraine argues that the tribunal is urgently needed to hold Russia’s leadership accountable for launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022. “We need to show clearly aggression leads to punishment and we must make it happen together, all of Europe,” Zelenskyy said after signing the accord with CoE Secretary General Alain Berset. Tribunal to be set up under the aegis of Europe’s top rights body The creation of the tribunal…

A former head of Venezuela’s military intelligence pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and narcoterrorism charges a week before his trial was set to begin in a United States federal court. Hugo Carvajal — a close aide of the country’s late President Hugo Chavez — on Wednesday pleaded guilty to four criminal counts, including narcoterrorism conspiracy, conspiracy to import cocaine and weapons charges. The indictment accused the retired major general of leading a cartel composed of senior Venezuelan military officers that attempted to “flood” the US with cocaine in collusion with leftist guerrillas from neighboring Colombia. The 65-year-old faces a maximum…

Thanks to sweeping spending cuts, Argentine President Javier Milei has managed to bring inflation in his country down from a monthly 25% in December 2023 to below 3% now, according to official data published by the country’s INDEC statistics agency. And yet, the cost of living in Argentina is still rising, forcing the libertarian leader to make another controversial proposal to the public. He’s called on his fellow citizens to spend their cash dollars squirreled away in mattresses and foreign bank accounts, long held by Argentines as a hedge against decades of economic turmoil. Last week (June 5), Milei’s government sent a bill…

Billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has changed the venue of the party celebrating his wedding with former TV presenter Lauren Sanchez, following protests against the event scheduled for the weekend in the Italian city of Venice. The wedding party, which was rumored to be held this Saturday in a popular and central nightlife area, in Cannaregio’s Scuola Grande di Santa Maria della Misericordia, was moved to an isolated, less accessible part of the lagoon city for security reasons. The highly anticipated event, dubbed “the wedding of the century,” is set to draw a bevy of celebrities, including US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, both…