Author: DW

North America is a completely different sporting environment from Europe – a fact that hasn’t been lost on the continent’s newest superstar, Thomas Müller of the Vancouver Whitecaps. “Here in North America, I know that the playoffs are much more important than the regular season, so we are hoping we can get on a run of form at just the right time and once again electrify the soccer fans of Vancouver,” Müller told DW in a media roundtable this week. The “once again” referred to 1979, the last time the Whitecaps were North American champions. On the pitch, he could…

It’s the most expensive single defense project in Europe, with a projected cost of at least €100 billion ($116.6 billion). From 2040, the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) aims to combine a new European fighter jet with fleets of drones controlled via a European defense cloud. “It’s more like a flying combat system,” Christian Mölling, a German security expert, told DW. The goal is to reduce European dependence on the United States and the F-35 fighter jets, equipped with stealth technology, that the US produces. However, the two companies involved — Dassault in France, and Airbus in Germany and Spain —…

The US tariff exemption for low-value items shipped from abroad has ended. That means that all goods sent to the United States now attract tariffs as of Friday at 12.01 a.m (0401 UTC/GMT). For the next six months, postal service shippers can opt to pay a flat duty of $80 to $200 per package depending on the country of origin, Trump administration officials said. The de minimis exemption, which allowed items worth $800 or less to be shipped to the US duty free, had been in place since 1938. The number of de minimis packages entering the US skyrocketed from 140…

The German classic fast food snack, Currywurst, or curry sausage, has been a staple in the city of Hamburg for decades, and is often washed down with a local Astra beer. Now the Astra St Pauli Brewery, located in Hamburg’s heartland near the Reeperbahn entertainment disctrict, has teamed up with Hela, which produces a legendary spiced curry ketchup, to reinvent a popular neighborhood classic. Adding the Hela curry mixture to a classic 6.5% alcohol Astra beer, the so-called “Currydurst” (Currythirst) was born as a homage to street food culture in Hamburg. Brimming with the spicy, slightly smokey flavour that marks the…

When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a state visit to the US in June 2023, the pomp and pageantry reflected how keen the US side was to promote the countries’ strong ties. “I’ve long believed that the relationship between the United States and India will be one of the defining relationships of the 21st century,” said then-President Joe Biden when welcoming Modi. When Modi returned to the White House earlier this year to meet the newly elected Donald Trump, there was less pageantry but still considerable warmth and much talk of deal-making. Six months later, the situation has changed dramatically.…

This article comes to you a little later than DW’s Science team had planned. The day I was originally supposed to write about the connection between chronic pain and antidepressants, my hands and wrists hurt so much, I couldn’t type for longer than a few minutes at a time. Ah, the irony. Thankfully, the pain mostly retreated over the course of a weekend. In the past, I’ve had to take time off work for weeks as typing, or any activity that involved using my hands, became nigh impossible. As for the source of that pain? That’s a mystery none of…

Olympic refugee swimmer Alaa Maso had never planned to come to Germany. But close to 10 years after first arriving along with about 1.2 million other asylum seekers as Germany opened its doors amid a migration crisis, it is a country he is now hoping to make his permanent home. “I don’t believe that home is where you grew up or where you were born,” Maso told DW in a recent interview at his training base in Hanover. “I just believe that home is wherever you feel yourself at home. You’re given that feeling by the people surrounding you.” Back in…

Argentinian authorities are searching an 18th-century Italian portrait believed to have been looted by a fugitive Nazi officer 80 years ago. The painting has now surfaced in an advertisement for a property in the South American nation. The Nazi officer is believed to have stolen the painting from the Jewish art collector Jacques Goudstikker. Goudstikker had an extensive collection of over 1,000 paintings, which Nazi officials divided up after his death. Friedrich Kadgien took possession of the portrait and eventually settled in Argentina after World War II. What did the police find? Acting on an alert from international police agency Interpol, Argentinian police…

The director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Susan Monarez, has been dismissed less than one month into her job amid other high-profile resignations over vaccine policies and health directives, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the White House. “Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention. We thank her for her dedicated service to the American people,” HHS said.  Monarez not ‘aligned’ with Trump’s MAHA goals, White House says The post did not provide a reason for her early departure. White House spokesperson Kush…

Imprisoned Turkish cultural promoter and social justice activist, Osman Kavala, along with Chinese scholar and German language expert, Li Yuan, and the Belgian archaeologist and author David Van Reybrouck, have been awarded the 2025 Goethe Medal. Whether they’re breaking down cultural barriers, fighting for human rights and democracy, or finding a common language, the trio habe been honored by Germany’s global cultural body, the Goethe Institute, for their outstanding services to international cultural exchange.  The Goethe Medal award ceremony takes place in Weimar on August 28, the birthday of iconic German writer and polymath,  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Osman Kavala remains influential, despite life sentence “His lifelong commitment to…