Author: DW

The primary cause of death in an earthquake is not the shaking ground but crumbling roofs, crashing walls and collapsing buildings.   No deaths have been reported from the most recent 7.7 magnitude earthquake affecting Myanmar and Thailand. The quake and a 6.4 aftershock caused evacuations from buildings in the Thai capital Bangkok and one high-rise to collapse. After the strong quake in central Japan earlier this week, smoke was seen rising from the scene of a fire in WajimaImage: Kyodo News/IMAGO How do earthquakes cause buildings to collapse?  Earthquakes can cause buildings to stretch, compress or shear.   Shearing occurs when unaligned forces act on…

After talks among close to 30 mainly European and NATO leaders in Paris on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron touted plans to deploy troops from “several” European countries to Ukraine should a lasting peace deal be established.  The contours of any such arrangement are still unclear but could take firmer shape in the coming weeks. British and French defense officials will soon visit Ukraine to scope out security needs on the ground, Macron announced. “There will be a reassurance force with several European countries who will deploy,” to Ukraine, Macron told the press after a three-hour meeting of leaders, including Ukrainian…

A US federal judge temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender military troops on Thursday, marking the second nationwide injunction in two weeks. US District Court Judge Benjamin Settle ruled that transgender service members would suffer “irreparable harm of losing the military service career they have chosen” if removed and criticized the administration’s lack of justification for the ban.  “The government’s arguments are not persuasive, and it is not an especially close question on this record,” Settle wrote. Plaintiffs call policy discriminatory Thursday’s ruling follows a similar order last week by US District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington, DC,…

The news of the arrest of Ekrem Imamoglu last week triggered heavy losses in Turkey’s capital markets, as many investors appear to be losing confidence in the presidency of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkish stocks experienced their worst week since the global financial crisis of 2008, with the blue-chip ISE 100 stock index losing more than 16% at the peak of the rout. In response, Turkey’s capital markets authority banned short selling and betting on further price declines. At the same time, it eased stock buybacks to support plunging shares. While the index initially rose by about 2%, it soon turned…

Emmanuel Macron has announced a plan for a “reassurance force” with several countries in Ukraine – but not all European allies have backed the idea.The French president said some nations disagreed on the proposed deployment of an armed force to back up an eventual peace deal, with only some wanting to take part. “It is not unanimous,” he said during a news conference after the third summit of the so-called “coalition of the willing” on Thursday, with leaders meeting in Paris to coordinate their stance.But Mr Macron said France and the UK, who are driving the initiative, will work with…

“Death of a Unicorn,” directed by Alex Scharfman and starring Jenna Ortega and Paul Rudd, features something you don’t hear about every day: Killer unicorns. The film, released in the United States on March 28, is a story about human greed, poking fun at the ultra wealthy in the context of humans hunting down unicorns they discover on a remote ranch in Canada. The creatures are said to have magical healing properties. As the chase begins, gory chaos ensues. From medieval tapestries to sculptures by Salvador Dali, the film is the latest cultural product to harness the centuries-old symbolism of the mythical one-horned creature. The unicorn’s sage-like origins…

Bird flu has done a fine job of spreading in the US since 2023. It hasn’t been government policy to let the virus spread among America’s chickens instead of culling sick ones, but it may just become the new direction under US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.  Kennedy has spoken publicly about a strategy to “let it spread” among America’s poultry and breed the strongest ones that survive, a policy he said is supported by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. On March 11, Kennedy told Fox News host Sean Hannity that “Most of our scientists are against the culling operation.”  “You should let the disease…

Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter and former UEFA chief Michel Platini were both acquitted of corruption charges by a Swiss court on Tuesday. The charges had related to fraud, forgery, mismanagement and misappropriation of 2 million Swiss francs (now €2.1 million; $2.26 million) of FIFA money in 2011. The two had previously been acquitted by a lower court in 2022, but Swiss prosecutors appealed that decision. “After two acquittals, even the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland must realize that these criminal proceedings have definitively failed,” Platini’s lawyer Dominic Nellen said in a statement on Tuesday. “Michel Platini must finally be…

In the latest display of North Korea’s growing military capabilities, Kim Jong Un oversaw tests of AI-enabled suicide drones and reconnaissance drones, state media KCNA reported on Thursday.  “The field of unmanned equipment and artificial intelligence should be top-prioritized and developed in modernizing the armed forces,” KCNA quoted the North Korean leader as saying. Kim oversees military modernization According to the report, Kim inspected upgraded reconnaissance drones capable of tracking targets on land and sea, as well as newly unveiled airborne early-warning (AEW) aircraft, as the North augments its existing land-based radar systems. He was seen examining a large four-engine aircraft…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he believed his country’s partners should show the same resilience and strength when facing Russia that Ukraine does. Zelenskyy, who spoke to a panel of European journalists after meeting French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, specifically addressed the US role in the negotiations with Moscow in an attempt to reach a ceasefire agreement. Asked about whether the US would show the strength he mentioned, Zelenskyy said that he hoped they would. “God bless they will,” he said. Public support in the US The Ukrainian leader expressed his gratitude for the fact that most of the American…