Author: DW

The organizers of the Flanders Festival Ghent were open about why they decided to cancel a planned concert by the Munich Philharmonic: The reason, they said, was that its Israeli conductor, Lahav Shani, had not sufficiently distanced himself from the actions of Israel’s government.   By cancelling the event, the organizers claim they wanted “to maintain the serenity of our festival,” and state that it is their “deepest conviction that music should be a source of connection and reconciliation.”  But instead of serenity, the move has triggered a wave of outrage — especially in Germany.   An ‘unspeakable and deeply antisemitic…

Crime may not pay, but prison does. Behind the locked doors and razor wire, a parallel economy thrives. But who’s really cashing in? Governments worldwide spend hundreds of billions annually to keep more than 11.5 million people behind bars — mostly men. The exact global cost is unclear, but in the United States alone — the world’s biggest jailer — the prison budget is $80.7 billion (€69.1 billion) per year, versus Brazil at around $4 billion. India, with the world’s fourth-largest prison population, spends nearly $1 billion. Private corporations now profit from incarceration in many countries, from building cells to selling phone calls. Inside, organized crime syndicates run contraband empires and extortion rackets.…

A no-man’s-land only about 15 meters [16 yards] wide forms the border between Lithuania and Belarus, a close ally of Russia. Two metal fences line the 600-kilometer-long strip of land. The one on the Lithuanian side is topped with barbed wire. Above it, surveillance cameras rotate regularly from left to right, making a humming sound as they zoom in and out. Fears that there could be breaches at the border have risen in Lithuania since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. These have been exacerbated by Zapad 2025, joint maneuvers between Russia and Belarus involving tens of thousands of soldiers that are scheduled to…

South Africa’s Constitutional Court has ruled that husbands can take their wives’ family name, overturning a law that banned them from doing so. Thursday’s decision upheld a ruling made last year by a lower court, with Justice Loena Theron saying the existing law discriminated “on the grounds of gender” and was a “colonial import.” The law, which only allows a woman to change her family name when her marital status changes, was introduced during the apartheid years of white-minority rule. The court suspended the current legislation and gave the government two years to amend the Births and Deaths Registration Act.…

The pain is still there, but Ilona Lüth and Patricia Gerstendörfer can laugh once again. Sitting together on two wooden chairs, they smile at each other. Their friendship is marked by a shared traumatic experience: Both lost loved ones to suicide.  “I asked Patricia all the questions I didn’t dare ask myself at the time,” says Ilona. “Do I need therapy now? Can I continue working? Can I manage without medication? Patricia encouraged me to do what felt right.”  When Ilona suddenly lost her husband to suicide six years ago, she was heading the customs department of a medium-sized company. Distracting…

When Volkswagen chief designer Andreas Mindt looks at the electric ID.Polo, he sees a friendly, familiar face. And that’s exactly the point.   Standing before the still-camouflaged model at the IAA auto show in Munich, Germany, Mindt described a shift away from the futuristic, sparser design language of recent ID models.  “When you look at the face here, it’s very optimistic,” Mindt said, pointing to the front. “It’s uplifting. All the lines are up-rising so that it looks friendly and positive and optimistic.” A similar approach is visible across this year’s IAA Mobility show, where European carmakers are rethinking electric-vehicle design and…

NASA’s rover Perseverance has uncovered rocks that may hold potential signs of ancient microbial life on Mars, according to research published Wednesday. Since landing on the Martian surface in 2021, the rover has been searching for signs of ancient life in Jezero Crater, a region in the planet’s northern hemisphere that was once flooded and contained an ancient lake basin. In summer 2024, Perseverance discovered newly identified “Sapphire Canyon” rock samples in the reddish, clay-rich mudstones of Neretva Vallis, a river channel that once carried water into Jezero Crater. The samples were then examined using all the scientific instruments aboard…

If you want to beat Slovenia, the number one job is to stop Luka Doncic. Germany, who will be aiming to do just that in the EuroBasket quarterfinals, know exactly the threat the Los Angeles Lakers star poses. “You can’t stop him. You have to find ways to beat the team,” Germany point guard Maodo Lo said ahead of the match. “We’ll see how much we can limit him. We’ll have a few ideas,” added interim head coach Alan Ibrahimagic. “But we’re not playing against Luka Doncic, we’re playing against Slovenia.” The NBA playmaker is the heart and soul of Slovenia. In…

Ghana has agreed to accept West Africans deported from the US, Ghanaian President John Mahama said Wednesday. Mahama said Ghana had agreed to take in nationals from West Africa, where a regional agreement allows visa-free travel. “We were approached by the US to accept third-party nationals who were being removed from the US. And we agreed with them that West African nationals were acceptable,” Mahama said. The “first batch” of 14 people, which includes several Nigerians and one Gambian, has already arrived in Ghana, he told journalists. Racism and discrimination in US immigration policyTo view this video please enable JavaScript,…

Global patterns show that democracy around the world continued to weaken last year, according to a new report. The Global State of Democracy 2025, published by the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), analyzed democratic performance in 173 countries in 2024. In the report, 94 countries — or just over half of those surveyed — showed a decline in at least one of the key democracy indicators between 2019 and 2024, the report said. In comparison, only a third made progress. “The current state of democracy in the world is concerning,” IDEA Secretary General Kevin Casas-Zamora said.…