Author: DW

Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Giuffre has reportedly left hospital after recently saying she had “four days to live”.Her representative said she was discharged on Monday, according to US celebrity website People. Photos in Australian media on Wednesday are said to show Ms Giuffre being driven in a vehicle north of Perth.The 41-year-old appeared with a bruised face last week when she posted an Instagram video saying her car had been hit by a speeding school bus as she slowed for a turn.She said: “I’ve gone into kidney renal failure, they’ve given me four days to live, transferring me to a…

When the list of the first regional winners of the World Press Photo Award (WPPA) 2025 was published on March 27, there was a huge outcry. The reason: Mikhail Tereshchenko, a reporter at Russia’s state news agency TASS since 2017, was among the winners of what is probably the most prestigious prize in the field of photojournalism. Tereshchenko had photographed mass protests in Georgia against the pro-Russian government. The protesters were reacting to alleged electoral fraud and calling for a pro-European course. Critics questioned the WPPA’s decision to honor a TASS photographer, while photographers from Georgia suffer from repression. Tereshchenko openly shares…

When you look at an abstract painting, study it in a museum for example, what do you see and what do you feel? Does it conjure an old memory, a sense of spirituality, or confusion?  Artists and philosophers have long tried to answer such questions, including what art means. Now, scientists are having a go. A new study has analyzed what happens in people’s brains when they look at abstract art. Published in the journal PNAS, the study provides insight into how the brain engages with different forms of art and constructs subjective experiences. The researchers say their findings support the concept of…

The threats and insults have been coming from both sides for days now. Turkey is trying to establish a “neo-Ottoman state” in Syria and if it crosses “red lines” then Israel will act, senior Israeli officials warned. With its ongoing air attacks on Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, Israel’s “fundamentalist and racist” government has become “the greatest threat to the security of our region” with “aggressive and expansionist policies,” Turkish officials responded.  The latest undiplomatic comments came late last week as a result of Israel bombing Syria again. Since the former authoritarian Syrian regime, led by dictator Bashar Assad, was ousted in December 2024, Israel…

What has happened at St. Pauli? Bundesliga club St. Pauli has decided to suspend the playing of its famous “Das Herz von St. Pauli” (The heart of St. Pauli) fan song after research by the Bundesliga club’s museum team revealed the song has a Nazi past. “We absolutely know and understand that the song has great emotional significance for many people,” emphasized club president Oke Göttlich in a statement. “This can remain the case on a personal level, but an anthem in the stadium has a special function: such a song should bring people together, it should be a shared and unifying moment. In view…

Who will prove to be the defender of democracy in these trials? In Brazil, supporters of ex-President Jair Bolsonaro, who is on trial before the Constitutional Court for an attempted coup, are facing off against the Brazilian judiciary. In France, supporters of the French right-wing populist Marine Le Pen, who was convicted of corruption, are protesting against what they consider a “political verdict”. And in South Korea, many people see President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was recently dismissed by South Korea’s Constitutional Court, as a “martyr for democracy.” Yeol had surprisingly imposed martial law in December 2024 to “protect the country…

France could be pivotal in making Europe’s defense sector autonomous. But the country will have to overcome hurdles — and shouldn’t go it alone, experts warn. French President Emmanuel Macron was already making the case for what he called “strategic autonomy” back in 2017. “When it comes to defense, our aim should be for Europe to have the capacity to act autonomously, alongside NATO,” he said during a Europe speech at Sorbonne University in Paris. At the time, his appeal fell on deaf ears in the European Union, especially on those of then German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Waking up amid new…

Volodymyr Zelenskyy says two Chinese citizens have been captured while fighting in eastern Ukraine.He said his forces had fought six Chinese soldiers and two of them had been taken prisoner. He added he had ordered officials to obtain an explanation from Beijing. “We have information that there are many more Chinese citizens in the occupier’s units than just two. We are now finding out all the facts,” he added.Follow latest: Zelenskyy demands reaction from USChina is an ally of Russia and has been accused of helping its war in Ukraine, though Beijing has repeatedly denied allegations that it has supplied…

“I’m a modern witch, I admit it,” says 59-year-old Barbara. She has spent her entire life feeling that she is in contact with the spirit world. Her room smells of incense, and she’s about to consult the runes for her future. In the Early Modern period, Barbara would likely have ended up burned at the stake. This fate also threatened Maria Anna Schwegelin, for the people wanted to see the former maid burned in April 1775. She had confessed to fornication with the devil. Maria Anna Schwegelin was the last witch to be sentenced to death in Germany, in the Bavarian town of Kempten,…

For years, Germany had been seen as the leading light of Europe — both politically and economically powerful, and with a figurehead in the form of Angela Merkel who was instantly recognizable on the continent and internationally. Her retirement, a comparatively unstable successor government led by the center-left’s Olaf Scholz, and the difficult passage through the economic turmoil of the COVID-19 pandemic, saw Germany’s European star dull. Across the border, Emmanuel Macron — no stranger to his own domestic political battles — has emerged as Europe’s most important national leader amid the global shocks wrought by the second Trump administration and its hostile…