Author: DW

Pope Leo XIV met on Saturday with a group of people who were sexually abused by members of the clergy in Belgium. The group of fifteen were victims of abuse when they were minors, the Holy See Press Office said.  Many of the survivors had previously met with the late Pope Francis during his 2024 visit to Belgium, the Vatican said, adding that the late pontiff had heard their story “with a sense of shame for the suffering they endured as children.” Belgium is a largely Roman Catholic country, where the Belgian Catholic Church has been plagued by a series of abuse scandals in recent years.…

Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa arrived in the United States on Saturday for an official visit that includes a scheduled meeting with President Donald Trump next week, a diplomatic gesture that was previously unimaginable. Al-Sharaa arrived a day after the US removed the Syrian president from a terrorism sanctions list, just one day after the United Nations Security Council lifted similar sanctions. Al-Sharaa led the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham militant group, previously affiliated with the US-designated terror group al-Qaeda, that overthrew the regime of Bashar Assad last year. Shortly after Assad’s ouster in December 2024, the US lifted a $10 million (€8.6 million) reward it had earlier put in place for al-Sharaa’s arrest. In May, Trump…

“Nuremberg” is what used to be called an Oscar movie. Or, less charitably, “Oscar bait”: The new film from director James Vanderbilt, which opens Friday, takes a subject of immense historical weight, the trial of Nazi leader Hermann Göring at Nuremberg; casts Oscar winners Russell Crowe and Rami Malek, who deliver big, showy performances; and throws money at the screen to create a slick and respectable piece of cinema. Unlike previous films about the high-stakes trial, Vanderbilt’s film is not a courtroom drama, but rather a psychological thriller based on Jack El-Hai’s nonfiction book “The Nazi and the Psychiatrist.” “Nuremberg” focuses on the interviews between Göring (Crowe) —…

It is not just superstars, royal families or oligarchs skipping long security lines and sitting in the cushy leather seats anymore.  Today, there are more options than ever to take to the skies in a private jet without being head of state, CEO or owning a plane outright. Private jet deliveries are up Since the COVID-19 pandemic travel slump, planemakers have made a steady recovery driven by strong customer demand. Currently, there are around 23,500 private jets in service globally, according to Denesz Thiyagarajan, head of the general aviation team at IBA Insight, an aviation advisory company. North America accounts for…

Several referees, assistant referees and the chairman of an unnamed Super Lig club have had arrest orders issued against them by Turkish prosecutors following an investigation into alleged betting on top-level football matches. At least 18 of the 21 suspects have been detained following coordinated early morning raids, according to state-owned Anadolu news agency. The Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office said the 17 referees, who were arrested in Istanbul and 11 other provinces, are being investigated for a possible charge of “influencing the outcome of a match,” among others. The arrests and warrants come only a week after the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) suspended 149 referees and assistant referees following an investigation…

President Donald Trump on Friday announced that no US officials would attend the Group of 20 summit in South Africa later this month, citing the country’s treatment of white farmers. “It is a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa,” Trump posted on his Truth Social network. The Trump administration has long accused the South African government of discriminating against its white minority, citing alleged land seizures and violence. The South African government has denied that Afrikaners and other white South Africans are being persecuted. “No US government official will attend as long as these human rights abuses…

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Friday his country received an exemption from US sanctions on imports of Russian oil. Orban was speaking with reporters from Hungarian media outlets following his talks with US President Donald Trump. Trump was hosting Orban at the White House, with much of the visit having centered around Orban’s request that Trump provide Hungary with an exemption from US sanctions on purchases of Russian oil.  Hungary “received full exemption from sanctions” for Russian oil and gas delivered to Hungary from the Druzhba and TurkStream pipelines, Orban said. “We asked the president to lift the sanctions,”…

For more than two centuries, Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” has been the monster that won’t die — endlessly revived, re-stitched, and sent staggering back into the culture. The basic parable is evergreen: a gifted but blinkered scientist plays God, creating life out of reanimated body parts. Horrified by his own creation, he abandons it, and the rejected “creature” becomes the monster society fears it to be. That core has proved elastic enough to survive everything, from the cult classic 1930s monster movies starring Boris Karloff to sitcoms and kids’ cartoons. But most of what audiences think they know about “Frankenstein” comes from the movies, not Mary…

The artificial intelligence (AI) party is still in full swing, with tens of billions globally pouring into infrastructure, startups and attracting the best talent. Among the headline announcements this year: ChatGPT parent company Open AI, Softbank and Oracle pledged to invest $500 billion (€433 billion) in AI supercomputers, Open AI and chip giant Nvidia announced a $100 billion fund to maintain the United States’ dominance in advanced chips, while Chinese tech giants Alibaba and Tencent hiked investments to help speed up China’s ambition to lead AI by 2030. Since ChatGPT’s debut in November 2022, AI-related stocks have added an estimated $17.5 trillion in market value,…

“Scientia potestas est — Knowledge is power!” That phrase was coined by English philosopher Sir Francis Bacon at the end of the 16th century, when England was one of the world’s leading empires, both in terms of science and power politics. It was Bacon’s aim to point out to his contemporaries that knowledge is of strategic use — a motto that’s still valid today. The global research landscape is currently facing a turning point: According to a new survey published in the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” (PNAS) periodical, Chinese scientists had already taken the leading role in…