Author: DW

Starting August 1, Deutsche Bahn’s 280-kilometer (174-mile) route linking Berlin to Hamburg will be completely closed for at least nine months. With up to 30,000 passengers daily, it is the most heavily used direct connection in Germany’s long-distance rail transport. Around 230 regional, long-distance and freight trains travel daily on the tracks between Germany’s two largest cities. Starting Friday, the intercity passenger trains will have to take a 100-kilometer detour, while freight trains will be rerouted even further. In addition, 170 buses will be deployed daily to continue connecting the towns between Berlin and Hamburg that will be cut off from rail…

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot cycled to victory in the Tour de France Femmes on Sunday, becoming the first Frenchwoman to win the iconic race since the reestablishment of the women’s edition four years ago. After nine days of racing, the 33-year-old Olympic cross-country champion finished three minutes and 42 seconds ahead of Demi Vollering of the Netherlands and more than four minutes ahead of last year’s winner, Katarzyna Niewiadoma of Poland. “This stage was really difficult,” she said of the ninth and final stage in the Alpine region of Haute-Savoie. “But I was determined to win here wearing the yellow jersey. It’s…

South Korea began dismantling loudspeakers broadcasting anti-North Korea messages along the border on Monday, according to the country’s defense ministry. The move is part of President Lee Jae-myung’s efforts to improve relations with Pyongyang. “Starting today, the military has begun removing the loudspeakers,” Lee Kyung-ho, spokesperson for the South’s defense ministry, told reporters. “It is a practical measure aimed at helping ease tensions with the North, provided that such actions do not compromise the military’s state of readiness.” He added that all loudspeakers are expected to be removed by the end of the week.North Korea’s new propagandaTo view this video please enable JavaScript,…

The body of the fifth and last missing miner was found on Sunday, days after the collapse of a tunnel at the world’s largest copper mine in Chile. “Today we finally found [dead] the last of the missing workers,” Aquiles Cubillos, prosecutor for Chile’s O’Higgins region, told reporters. Rescuers dug two dozen meters (78 feet) of underground passages to retrieve the body of the miners. How did the miners get trapped? On Thursday, a part of the El Teniente copper mine collapsed after a 4.2 magnitude tremor, which initially killed one person and injured nine others. Following the tremors and the…

In his election campaign, Donald Trump once said that “tariff is the most beautiful word in the dictionary.” Now, after six months in office, the US president is eager to turn his very specific vision of global trade into reality. With a move that shocked both politics and business across the world, Trump announced on April 2 that he would impose a “baseline tariff” of 10% on all goods imported to the United States. In addition, goods from about 60 other trade partners would face so-called reciprocal tariffs that were even higher and meant as payback for the unfair trade policies…

The Holocaust memorial is located in central Bucharest, the capital of Romania. But for a long time, the country had not planned to include the Roma and Sinti people murdered during the Holocaust here. It was only pressure from local civil society groups that eventually saw a Roma wheel in stone added, to commemorate the thousands of Roma people deported to their deaths in Transnistria during World War II. The European Day of Remembrance for the Genocide of Sinti and Roma has been observed annually on August 2 since 2015 when the European Parliament recognized the date. Two days before the…

Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi suffered an injury on Sunday that forced him to leave Inter Miami’s Leagues Cup match against Necaxa in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The injury occurred in the 11th minute when the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner ran into Necaxa defender Alexis Pena and tumbled to the ground. Moments later when Messi was alone in the midfield, he sat on the ground and waited until trainers arrived. The 38-year-old footballer plays for both Argetina and Inter Miami at the Leagues Cup levelImage: Sam Navarro/IMAGN Images/REUTERS Once tended to, the star forward footballer limped off the field under his own power. What do we know about…

Apartment buildings in flames and clouds of smoke over the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv: Almost every day, Russia attacks the country with drones and rockets. In response, Ukraine is defending itself, including by striking targets deeper inside Russia. It’s quite possible that in these long-distance attacks, drones produced with German funds are being used. “This is the beginning of a new form of military-industrial cooperation between our countries, one that has great potential,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in late May when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Berlin. The two countries’ defense ministries signed an agreement back then: Germany would finance long-range weapons…

Over the last century, Detroit was home to monumental manufacturing prosperity before experiencing deindustrialization, violent riots and the biggest municipal bankruptcy in US history. Yet, through it all Pewabic Pottery has stood the bumpy test of time. Founded the same year as Ford Motor Company in 1903, Pewabic focused on individual handcrafted products instead of the mass production that turned the city into the epicenter of American auto manufacturing. Its survival was anything but assured and most other famous pottery studios have long since closed their doors.Master mold maker Sherlyn Hunter has been at Pewabic for over 40 years and is in charge…

Hans Christian Andersen was a dreamer who migrated between the worlds of fantasy and reality while becoming one of the world’s best-known fairy tale authors. He died in Copenhagen on August 4, 1875 but his stories live on — in children’s rooms, on theater stages and movie screens. His sagas often feature characters who’ve been rejected by society. They are tales of human weakness, of anguish and longing, but also beauty. The writer’s children’s stories are his greatest legacy, and the Hans Christian Andersen Award is the highest international recognition given to an author and illustrator of children’s books. Here are…