Author: DW

Iceland has become the fifth county to announce it will boycott the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, after Israel’s participation in the competition was officially confirmed last week. Despite boycott threats from several broadcasters over Israel’s actions in the war in Gaza, Israel’s entry was cleared after members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) chose not to hold a vote on banning the country.   Following the EBU’s decision Spain, one of the so-called “Big Five” largest contributors to Eurovision, said it would boycott the 2026 event because of Israel’s participation. Eurovision host broadcasters in Ireland, the Netherlands,  Slovenia, and now Iceland, are also withdrawing from the…

Amid tariff disputes, the war in Ukraine and environmental problems, Europe is looking for a new direction for its economic strategy. A key question is what role environmentally friendly production, agriculture and the protection of natural resources should play in the future. Through its 2019 Green Deal, the EU has been working towards making its industries more efficient and climate-neutral by 2050. But the plan is facing increasing criticism and pressure. Not least from the conservative EPP group in the EU Parliament, which is seeking to gain majorities with the help of far-right parties. Several resolutions are currently being watered…

It all started one day in June 2007, with a sudden fever and severe vomiting, said David Hancock. He should have gone to hospital, immediately. But he didn’t — he thought: If this is a common infection, I’ll get over it.  Then he realized it wasn’t a common infection. But it still took 10 days for doctors to make a reliable diagnosis. During these 10 days the then 49-year-old fell into a coma and suffered heart failure — multiple times. His lungs filled with fluid, and his brain became inflamed. “I was on the other side, with one foot in the…

Tatjana Haenni has been named as the head of RB Leipzig’s management board in an expanded leadership structure for the Bundesliga club. The club revealed the news in a statement on Wednesday, noting that Haenni would start on January 1, 2026. The 59-year-old Swiss takes over where former RB boss Oliver Mintzlaff started, and in doing so becomes the first woman to take on the club boss role in German football. “I am very much looking forward to this new role. I am convinced that with strong teamwork and a focus on RB Leipzig’s strengths, we can tap into significant potential,” Haenni…

Archaeologists wrote in the journal Nature this week that they have unearthed the oldest-known evidence of deliberate fire-making by prehistoric humans in the English county of Suffolk.  The hearth was discovered in Barnham in the UK, near a buried site that was once a pond where Neanderthals are thought to have lived roughly 415,000 years ago. The authors wrote that the site seems to provide “unequivocal evidence of deliberate fire-making” that “has remained elusive” because of the difficulties in distinguishing between naturally occurring fires being used by prehistoric humans and controlled fires being created on demand. Early humans are thought to have…

Bonn’s Haus der Geschichte (House of History) museum has opened its new permanent exhibition, “You are part of history.” The latest addition to the chronologically structured exhibition can be found — logically enough — at the very end. It’s a red protest sign against the new military conscription law, with the slogan “Wages up, armaments down.” A museum employee carried it back to the museum from the demonstration that took place at Bonn’s Hofgartenwiese on December 5. Less than a week later, it is already exhibited as a historical document in the section “Today,” the last of  five time periods covered in the interactive exhibition. The…

Stimulating economic growth while tackling the rising cost of living has been high on the agenda of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi since taking office in October.  Takaichi, 64, wants to avoid the fate of her predecessor, Shigeru Ishiba, who was in power barely a year before he was pushed out amid widespread public discontent over stubborn inflation, among other issues. An admirer of former premier Shinzo Abe, Takaichi has vowed to pursue her mentor’s “Abenomics”— a set of policies that involved ultra-loose monetary policy, fiscal stimulus and structural reforms to get Japan out of its decades-long deflationary spiral of falling prices…

Health authorities in the United Kingdomconfirmed on December 8, 2025, that they had detected a so-called “recombinant” version of the mpox virus in a male patient. A virus becomes a recombinant virus when two existing versions of it recombine — by mixing their genetic information — to form a new, hybrid version. This can happen when different types of a virus infect a person at the same time. The UK’s national health security agency, UKHSA, said the recombinant mpox virus was detected in a man who had recently returned to the UK from Asia. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Thailand, Malaysia and Japan have recorded mpox cases in…

The eyes of the political world have been firmly fixed on Washington for the whole of 2025 and, on Friday, the eyes of the football world will join them for the 2026 World Cup draw. Gianni Infantino, the president of world football’s governing body, FIFA, will be the ringmaster. But even the most powerful man in the world’s biggest sport will likely be in the shadow of US President Donald Trump despite the very public friendship the two men have formed. “I’m really lucky. I have a great relationship with President Trump, who I consider really a close friend,” Infantino said recently…

“What we cannot accept is the threat to interfere in European politics,” EU Council President Antonio Costa stated on Monday at a discussion at the Jacques Delors Institute in Brussels. Costa’s statement, which also emphasized European sovereignty, came in response to the new US national security strategy, which is largely seen as an affront to Europe. The US government regularly publishes a roadmap for its future security policy. It can be seen as indicative of what to expect from the US in Europe in the future, and the latest version criticizes European institutions.European Council President Antonio Costa highlighted the importance…