Author: DW

Robert Redford’s death this week wasn’t just the loss of a screen legend. It closed the book on a Hollywood that once saw itself as America’s progressive conscience. Redford, on screen as a Watergate journalist Bob Woodward in “All the President’s Men,” off screen as an activist for environmental issues and Indigenous rights, embodied a liberal vision of the US entertainment industry, one that championed independent voices and socially-conscious storytelling. The week he died, however, brought further signs of a rightward shift in the US entertainment business, with the balance of cultural power increasingly tilting away from Redford’s Hollywood and toward something…

On the grounds of Paderborn Airport, engineer Michael Spengler demonstrates how far self-driving technology has come in Germany. He enters a route into his smartphone, taps a button, and rests his hands in his lap. The small car begins to roll, navigating at a leisurely seven kilometers per hour between buildings and parked vehicles. “It can go faster — 20 to 25 km/h [12 to 15 mp/h] is no problem,” the researcher from Augsburg University of Applied Sciences explains while sitting in the driver’s seat — only as a safeguard, he notes, ready to take over if something goes wrong.…

Apeksha Shetty, an Indian woman based in Vienna, went on the pill for hormonal reasons. One of the benefits, she thought, was being able to have sex with her steady partner, without having to worry about pregnancy. “We were initially very happy that we could have unprotected sex.” But things didn’t go as expected. The pill Shetty was prescribed stopped her periods entirely, and with it, she told DW, her sex drive vanished. “I went back to the doctor and told him I didn’t want to live my life like this,” said Shetty. “I told him I was young —…

Life in parts of the Philippines was disrupted on Monday as authorities suspended work and families took shelter in evacuation centers ahead of Super Typhoon Ragasa’s landing in northern Luzon. According to the national weather service, winds of up to 215 kph (134 mph) and gusts of up to 265 kph were recorded as of 8 a.m. local time (0000 GMT). Typhoon warning for Babuyan Islands Authorities have warned of heavy flooding, landslides and widespread power outages. Evacuations were underway in coastal and low-lying areas, and dozens of domestic flights and ferry services were cancelled. Schools and government offices were closed in…

Kenya celebrated a double triumph in the 51st Berlin Marathon on Sunday with first-place finishes in both the men’s and women’s races. The men’s race was won by 29-year-old Sabastian Sawe with a time of 2:02:15 — five months after his victory in the London marathon — while the women’s race was won by Rosemary Wanjiru with a time of 2:21:05. Despite Berlin’s reputation as the fastest marathon route on the world circuit, both times were significantly off world-record time (Sawe 1:40 slower, Wanjiru 11:49 slower). This can likely be attributed to the unusually humid late-summer conditions in the German capital as…

Sharifeh Mohammadi has been in prison since December 2023. The 46-year-old activist and engineer is accused of “armed rebellion against the state” in Iran. She now faces execution again. Already sentenced to death twice in 2024 and early 2025, this August the Supreme Court once again upheld the ruling. Her commitment to workers’ rights brought her to the attention of the authorities. She was a member of a committee for the formation of labor organizations in the northern Iranian coastal city of Rasht on the Caspian Sea, where she worked and lived with her family, including her 13-year-old son. The government…

At first it felt barbaric to be writing a book after October 7, 2023, the Israeli author Ayelet Gundar-Goshen said, “especially while we have the hostages kept there, away from their families in Israel, and destruction going on in Gaza — and you will allow yourself the privilege of escaping into a different world, into a world made of your own words? It felt wrong.” Then came the turning point that dispelled her hesitations: when Israeli government officials called for a boycott of books and films that portray Palestinians in a human way. “For me, this was a moment where I thought, ‘Wait a minute. The…

Evelyn Palla is to become the first female CEO of Germany’s Deutsche Bahn national rail operator, German media reported on Saturday. The Bild tabloid reported that Transport Minister Patrick Schneider would announce the appointment on Monday. According to the paper, Schneider will also present his overall plans for the company. There was no immediate comment from the ministry or from Deutsche Bahn. Who is Evelyn Palla? The 52-year-old hails from the South Tyrol region of northern Italy. She joined the company in 2019 and had previously worked for chipmaker Infineon, energy firm E.ON and the Austrian railway operator ÖBB. Palla is…

In cricket, Pakistan and India share a deep love and a deeper rivalry, but this week, the attention of both nations turns to a much simpler and shorter sporting event. At the World Athletics Championships in Japan, men’s javelin throwers Neeraj Chopra and Arshad Nadeem are expected to compete against each other for the first time since the 2024 Olympics in Paris. On that occasion, Nadeem of Pakistan took gold, ahead of Chopra, his Indian rival, who settled for silver after having won gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In 2025, Julian Weber of Germany has had the longest throw, at 91.51…

On Monday, the UN General Assembly in New York will hold a special summit on the war in the Gaza Strip. It is a continuation of a diplomatic project led by France and Saudi Arabia to push for the revival the two-state solution — in which Israelis and Palestinians would exist side by side — as the only answer to the decadeslong conflict. At Monday’s meeting, several countries have said they will join the more than 145 UN members that already recognize a Palestinian state. These include France, Canada, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Australia, Luxembourg and Malta. Most of the recent European declarations on recognizing Palestinian statehood have come as…