Author: DW

“Iran will not surrender and will continue to defend itself,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, told the public in a televised speech this week, following days of Israeli bombing and Iran’s retaliatory strikes. His exact location is unclear. Rumors and hints from the US and the Israeli governments indicate that he could be personally targeted at some point by an Israeli air strike. If Khamenei is assassinated, he would share the fate of many high-ranking members of his regime who have been killed in recent days. And this has prompted many to ask — how can a regime that…

In Germany, there are many people who cannot manage without a car, particularly in the countryside, where public transport networks can be patchy, nonexistent even. Transitioning to electric, or e-, vehicles will not solve the transportation problem on its own. Privately owned electric cars may not run on oil, but they still consume resources, take up space, require roads and parking areas. But much could be resolved if people were able to switch to using robot taxis. For years now, countries like the USA and China have been running pilot projects with self-driving cars and driverless vans. These vehicles are…

The escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, with both sides firing missiles and drones at each other, has unsettled global energy markets.   Israeli attacks on Saturday targeted Iran’s energy infrastructure, including vital oil storage sites, refineries and power stations. Among the locations targeted was the massive South Pars gas field, which is part of the world’s largest reservoir of natural gas. It’s located off Iran’s southern Bushehr province and is the source of most of the gas produced in Iran. Iran shares control over the South Pars gas field with neighboring Qatar, which calls the reservoir under its control North Dome. The attack,…

When German rabbi Leo Baeck was liberated from the Theresienstadt concentration camp on May 8, 1945, the day the war ended, he no longer believed in a future for Jewish people in Germany. Who wanted to live in the country that had planned to exterminate German Jewry and murdered millions? “The era of the Jews in Germany,” Baeck said at the time, “is over once and for all.” This assessment was shared by most survivors at the time. But what would become of centuries of German Jewish culture? Who would remember the music of Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Arnold Schönberg, the literature of Joseph Roth, Franz…

What is the 50+1 rule? The 50+1 rule is a central pillar of German professional football, which is intended to ensure that the club members retain control over the professional part of a football club. The rule, in place since 1999, stipulates that the parent club, for example Bayern Munich, must hold at least 50% plus one vote in its spun-off professional football company — in this case, FC Bayern München Fußball AG. This ensures that the majority of voting rights always lie with the club and its members. Compliance with the rule in German professional football is primarily monitored by…

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto signed a strategic partnership agreement with Russia on Thursday following talks in St Petersburg with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The agreement comes as Indonesia enters the BRICS grouping as a full member, and Prabowo on Thursday thanked Putin for his support on Indonesia’s BRICS bid. “Today we have met and our relationship is getting stronger again,” Prabowo said in a statement. “My meeting with President Putin today was intense, warm and productive. In all fields of economics, technical cooperation, trade, investment, agriculture, they all have experienced significant improvements,” the statement said. Putin called Indonesia one of Russia’s…

Niger’s ruling junta militia announced plans to nationalize Somair — a unit of the French uranium company Orano, on Thursday, escalating tensions between the two nations.  “Faced with the irresponsible, illegal and disloyal behavior of Orano, a company owned by the French state, a state openly hostile to Niger, Niger has decided, in all sovereignty, to nationalize Somair,” the junta said in a statement read on Niger’s national television.  The decision comes amid a deepening rift between Paris and Niamey after a deterioration in 2023 when the military junta staged a coup to take over Niger. As a result, France…

The Strait of Hormuz is a key waterway that lies between Oman and Iran, and connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) describes it as the “world’s most important oil transit chokepoint.” At its narrowest point, the waterway is just 33 kilometers (21 miles) wide, with the shipping lane just two miles wide in either direction, making it crowded and perilous. Large volumes of crude extracted by OPEC countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq from oil fields across the Persian Gulf region and consumed…

For more than 60 years, Juliana Lumumba has had questions. Who murdered her father? How did the Americans help? What did the United Nations do? Did they stand idly by, even though he was under their protection? They are uncomfortable questions, political questions. And Juliana will not rest until she has answers. “You cannot be the child of Patrice Lumumba without this impacting your life” she says. Her gaze is composed as she looks out of the window of her house in Kinshasa, the capital of the  Democratic Republic of the Congo. Lumumba murder case could go to trial On…

Coco Gauff, the world No. 2 female tennis player, has called on social media companies to do more to tackle online abuse, describing the comments she receives as “gross.” On Tuesday, the WTA Tour, which runs women’s tennis, released a report that laid out the widespread abuse aimed at players online. The report noted that much of the abuse came from disgruntled gamblers, with 15 cases so serious that law enforcement was involved. Data provided by tech company Signify Group and detected using AI, revealed that there were around 8,000 “abusive, violent or threatening” comments sent to 458 players in 2024. More…