Author: DW

Last week in Brussels, two EU initiatives sparked significant controversy and heated discussions on social networks. First, the European Commission presented the White Paper for European Defence – Readiness 2030, which aims to enable member states to invest more rapidly and significantly in their defense sectors. Second, the Commission introduced its strategy for a savings and investment union. This strategy is designed to create more incentives for investment, allowing Europe-wide funds to be established, making it easier for citizens to invest their money in various sectors, including environmental, digital technology and defense. “Households will have more and safer opportunities to invest in…

This will be the first natural disaster to happen after President Donald Trump shut down America’s international aid agency with potentially devastating consequences. The impact in the aftermath of this earthquake is likely to be severe. Trump’s decision to shut down the US Agency for International Development was already reported to have decimated US aid operations in Myanmar. Its global impact is hard to overstate. American aid had provided 40% of developmental aid worldwide. Yesterday, Trump promised Myanmar aid for the earthquake. In reality, his administration has fired most of the people most experienced at organising that help and shut…

More than a week since the arrest of popular Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, and his subsequent suspension from office, hundreds of thousands have taken daily to the streets to demonstrate. Imamoglu, a prominent political rival of autocratic Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, called on supporters of his Republican People’s Party (CHP) to protest following his detention on corruption charges. The mayor is among tens of thousands of political prisoners in Turkey.  More than 1,900 people have been detained since the protests began, including several journalists — among them a photographer from French news agency, AFP, who was taken from his…

A drug used to treat a rare inherited disease has been found to make human blood toxic to malaria-carrying mosquitoes. It could provide another tool to reduce deadly insect populations. Mosquitoes are considered the deadliest animal on the planet — carrying diseases that kill more than one million people a year.   Scientists have found that a drug called nitisinone, which is used to treat people with a rare inherited disease called tyrosinemia, makes human blood toxic to mosquitoes. Although it doesn’t prevent the transmission of the malaria parasite Plasmodium, nitisinone is now being considered for further field tests as a chemical control to reduce…

A Spanish court on Friday overturned the conviction of former Brazilian and Barcelona star soccer player Dani Alves for sexual assault. He was sentenced to four years and six months in prison in February 2024 after being found guilty of raping a woman in a Barcelona nightclub. He was released from prison in March 2024 pending his appeal.  But the top court in Spain’s Catalonia region said the original ruling presented “inconsistencies and contradictions.” “Dani Alves is very happy. He is innocent, that is demonstrated. Justice has spoken,” Ines Guardiola, Alves’ lawyer, told RAC1 radio. What did the court ruling say? In its ruling…

Over the past year and a half, the world has watched the war in Gaza unfold. It is a conflict that has killed more than 50,000 people, according to the Palestinian territory’s health ministry, and almost all of the 2.3 million residents there have been displaced multiple times. Local Palestinian journalists are the only ones capable of providing crucial insight on what is happening in Gaza to the world. But the conflict, triggered by the attacks on Israel the Islamic militant group Hamas led on October 7, 2023, has made the small territory one of the most dangerous places in the…

Niger entrenched military rule for another five years this week when junta leader, Abdourahamane Tchiani, who seized power in a 2023 military coup, was named president for the next five years. During his inauguration in the capital Niamey, attended by religious and military leaders, Tchiani boasted it was “a new beginning for a sovereign Niger.” Tchiani was sworn in under a new charter, which replaces the West African nation’s previous constitution. Depending on the security situation in Niger, which has been plagued by insurgencies and violence for over a decade, the five-year presidency may well be extended. Tchiani was also promoted to the country’s highest…

Germany’s labor market showed new signs of stress as unemployment rose sharply in March, marking the steepest monthly increase since October 2024. The number of jobless individuals rose by 26,000 in seasonally adjusted terms, bringing the total to 2.92 million, the Federal Labor Office reported on Friday. The figure more than doubled analysts’ forecasts of an increase of 10,000. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate climbed to 6.3%, up from 6.2% the previous month — also slightly above market predictions. Spring recovery slowed by economic troubles “March marks the start of the so-called spring recovery on the labor market. This year, however, the…

Witnesses have described the chaos as an earthquake struck Myanmar, with tremors felt 560 miles away in Bangkok. At least 144 people have died in Myanmar with more than 730 injured, while in Thailand eight people were killed and 81 are trapped after a skyscraper collapsed.Myanmar’s state broadcaster gave the first update on fatalities on Friday afternoon as the country’s military warned there would be more deaths and casualties.As emergency workers in both countries respond to the disaster, we hear from people in Bangkok and Myanmar who witnessed the natural disaster.Myanmar earthquake latest: Follow live updates’There was a lot of screaming’Paul…

Ask your average German what they associate with the name Rudolf Steiner and they may well list off a string of things, from natural cosmetics brand Weleda to Demeter organic food products to the alternative school in their town. The name will at least ring a bell. Ask a non-German the same thing, and chances are they’ll just scratch their heads. Yet while Steiner himself may not be well-known, his ideas have certainly had global impact, especially in the field of education. Steiner opened the first Waldorf school in 1919, and, 100 years after his death (on March 30, 1925), there…