Author: DW

In the early morning hours of Friday, December 19, you could spot the visitor from another solar system in the sky ― with a serious telescope, that is. Comet 3I/ATLAS flew by Earth at a distance of 270 million kilometers (168 million miles). That was its closest approach to our planet.  From here, the comet will continue its journey and pass by Jupiter in early 2026 before crossing the orbits of Saturn, Uranus and Neptune by 2028 and then leaving our solar system. The facts about 3I/ATLAS Beyond the fact that this is the third known interstellar object to have entered our solar system, “we don’t know…

The Women’s European Championship is coming home to its record champions. Germany, eight-time winners of this competition, are hosting their first women’s Euros since 2001 and a lot of the focus has been on the German FA’s (DFB) aim to make the tournament the first profitable women’s Euros. “The symbolism of a ‘profitable’ women’s Euro is powerful, but it’s not a guarantee of long-term health. Profit in 2029 must be judged by what it leaves behind for girls and women in Germany, not just by a closing balance sheet,” Popi Sotiriadou told DW. Sotiriadou is an associate professor in the department of tourism and…

Her guitar has been sitting unused in the corner for a month. “I don’t feel like it,” says 35-year-old Georgian musician and composer Natuka Natsvlishvili. “I’m depressed and I don’t think I have the right to sit at home and work on my music.” Natsvlishvili has been a musician since the age of 15 and has recorded an album. But now her focus has shifted. “My feeling is that we just have to fight now,” she told DW, explaining that she believes Georgia’s government threatens not only her freedom as an artist, but the freedom of the country itself. For the last…

What happened to the price of silver in 2025? Silver has experienced a remarkable bull market, more than doubling in value from around $30 (€24.54) per ounce at the start of the year to an all-time high of $67.65 per ounce on December 18. The metal traded on COMEX — the commodity division of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) — near $30 in January and hovered between $37 and $40 through the summer before breaking decisively higher in September.  Momentum then accelerated, with the strongest moves in the last three months of the year. The more than 110% year-to-date gain represents a dramatic turnaround for the…

It smells like Christmas in the countries that celebrate: In Germany, for example, scents of fresh pine, sugar cookies, mulled wine waft through the air. And they are likely to trigger emotions or memories in many people’s minds. “When you smell [this familiar] scent again, you’re back in the memory — in grandma’s kitchen baking Christmas cookies,” said Olaf Conrad, a doctor of otorhinolaryngology at Erlangen University Hospital.  Otorhinolaryngology is a branch of medicine that specializes in the head and neck, often called ear, nose and throat medicine. Scents don’t only trigger Christmas memories, of course. My grandmother used to come by once a…

The deal announced this week will see Bayern Munich become the owners of the Sportpark Unterhaching stadium on January 1, 2026, through a subsidiary that operates the men’s home ground, the Allianz Arena. It is reported to be worth an initial €7.5 million ($8.8 million) plus costs associated with renovations to the facility, to be conducted over the next few years. “The acquisition of Sportpark Unterhaching is another milestone in the overall development of our FC Bayern Women,” Bayern Munich CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen said in a statement announcing the move. “The new sporting home of our women’s team will meet…

Mention “perfume” and one might first envision fragrant liquids in fancy flacons. Yet the name itself, derived from the Latin “per fumum” — meaning “through smoke” — indicates that what we understand as “perfume” today differs vastly from its origins and uses among our ancestors. Its history is also a study in scientific breakthrough, knowledge transfer, trade expansion, colonialism and natural resource extraction, as well as latter-day Eurocentric marketing.  A painting depicting perfume makers at workImage: Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/picture alliance Scent as old as time Britannica states that the ancient Chinese, Hindus, Egyptians, Israelites, Carthaginians, Arabs, Greeks and Romans were all reportedly familiar…

The world’s wealthiest economies are crying out for foreign workers, despite rising anti‑immigration sentiment, particularly in the United States and Europe. Yet a little-discussed report released last month shows labor migration is falling globally, even as ageing societies face mounting shortages. The decline began well before the reelection of Donald Trump, who campaigned last year on a promise to sharply curb immigration. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which tracks global economic and social policy, work-related migration to its 38 member states dropped by more than a fifth last year (21%). The OECD’s International Migration Outlook 2025 report found the drop was…

“Begone, you tooth worm, drink no more blood!” — long before antibiotics, anaesthesia and X-rays changed the face of medicine, this is how healers all over the world might have tried to banish ailments with words. In the Middle Ages, incantations were used to address disease “demons” or body parts directly, such as plague spirits or the “wandering womb” — blamed for abdominal pain or infertility. The idea of this personalization was to threaten the supposed source of the illness and persuade it to abandon the body. To this day, incantations continue to be used in folkloric medicine or religious rituals across…

Will this be the ‘best Africa Cup of Nations ever?’ The 2024 Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast set a high bar, but the 35th edition of the continental football tournament (December 21 to January 18) is set to surpass even that, according to the organizers in Morocco. For the first time in the competition’s history, each team will have its own headquarters and team hotel, similar to what’s seen at World Cups and European Championships. Four stadiums were newly built for the tournament, while the remaining five, all relatively new, have been recently renovated.Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat…