Author: DW

At midnight on Wednesday, Australians under the age of 16 were blocked from most social media sites, as the country introduced a world first ban. Despite their opposition to the plans, sites including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X, YouTube and Reddit will be age-restricted in a list that will be constantly updated. Online gaming and messaging sites such as WhatsApp will be unrestricted for now. The Australian government are relying on the social media firms themselves to police the new law, saying they must take “reasonable steps” to prevent breaches, with punishments of up to AU $49.5 million (US $32 million, €27.5 million)…

It’s been an incredible ride for Poland’s economy. Over the past two decades, the country has evolved from a postcommunist transition state to one of Europe’s fastest-growing markets. Fueled by domestic demand, European Union (EU) investment funds, and a thriving manufacturing and services sector, Poland’s nominal gross domestic product (GDP) crossed the symbolic $1 trillion (€860 billion) threshold in September, according to the International Monetary Fund, cementing the country’s place among the world’s top 20 economies. Seemingly out of nowhere, the country’s opportunity to step up in global affairs came last month as the G20, the elite group of wealthy nations, was itself thrown into…

Iran is now expected to have a delegation at Friday’s World Cup draw in Washington D.C. after all. Iranian Sports Minister Ahmad Donjamali told state news agency Irna on Thursday that head coach Amir Ghalenoei would attend. This comes almost a week after the Iranian FA (FFIRI) announced that it would boycott the draw in protest after learning that several members of its planned delegation had been denied entry visas for the United States.  According to the English-language website Tehran Times, FFIRI President Mehdi Taj was among those who have been refused entry. In his statement Donjamali said that visas had now been…

US President Donald Trump on Monday escalated his criticism of Europe, saying the continent was “going in some bad directions” as he condemned a multimillion-euro EU penalty against Elon Musk’s social media platform X. Here are the key points: • Trump slams EU’s €120 million ($140 million) fine on X• Warns Europe is heading in “bad directions”• Musk denounces the penalty• US officials say EU is targeting American firms• EU cites transparency and data-access breaches• New US strategy warns of democratic “erosion” in Europe Speaking at the White House, Trump said that Europe was “very bad, very bad for the people” and warned that…

According to media reports, OpenAI plans to unveil a new artificial-intelligence reasoning model this week that is reportedly surpassing Google’s latest, most advanced family of AI models, Gemini 3. Online tech magazine The Decoder cites industry insiders who claim the launch is intended to counter Google’s recent advances in state-of-the-art reasoning, deep multimodal understanding of text, images and video, as well as Gemini 3’s powerful coding capabilities. Google’s parent company Alphabet introduced Gemini 3 in November, boasting benchmark results that surpassed OpenAI’s flagship model ChatGPT in key categories. Google’s Gemini 3 has reportedly pushed OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to prioritize work…

Some 4,500 years ago, people dug a series of deep, wide pits in the area near Durrington Walls in southern England. They were gemometrically arranged, forming a 2-kilometer (1.2-mile) wide circle that enclosed over three square kilometers (1.16 square miles). Long mistaken for naturally occuring features, the circle of human-made shafts has now come to be understood as a colossal project that lends new dimensions to the Stonehenge landscape. An invisible ring around Durrington Walls Durrington Walls is just a stone’s throw from the small English town of Amesbury, and just three kilometers, or about half an hour on foot,…

Imagine you do karate for fun but are being trained by a 10-time European champion, and it only costs you around €20 ($23) a month. Sound unlikely? In Germany, it is possible. At the Dojo Ochi karate club in the western city of Bonn, Melissa Rathmann volunteers as part of an eight-person team of coaches. In addition to her 10 European Championship titles, the 33-year-old has won numerous German championships and was twice runner-up in the World Championships. Despite her great sporting success, she has always remained loyal to her club. Melissa Rathmann in action at the karate club in BonnImage: Mariya…

US President Donald Trump said Sunday that he would be involved in the review by federal regulators of a proposed consolidation deal between streaming platform Netflix and Hollywood studio Warner Bros. The companies announced the agreement on Friday. Netflix would acquire parts of Warner Bros. Discovery for $72 billion (€84 billion) if the sale is completed. If regulators approve, the deal would unite two of the biggest names in entertainment, Netflix and Warner Bros., the studio behind “Harry Potter,” “Game of Thrones,” and the DC films. What did Trump say about the deal between Netflix and Warner Bros.? “I’ll be…

As part of the UNESCO-listed Museum Island, the Pergamon Museum is one of Berlin’s “must-see” attractions. But seeing it isn’t so easy: It has been completely closed for renovation since October 2023, and many parts will remain closed for 14 to 20 years — until 2037 to 2043. However, some of the museum’s main highlights will be greeting visitors a decade before the rest of the building’s refurbishment is completed. The north wing of the museum and the impressive Pergamon Altar hall, housing the famed Ancient Greek temple entrance for which the museum is named, are due to reopen in early 2027. The hall has been inaccessible…

Giving up a large share of revenue in a thriving business — all for a fly? Hans-Dietrich Reckhaus, the owner of the Reckhausen family-owned chemical company in Deppendorf, Germany, did exactly that. When the 59-year-old CEO took over his family’s insecticide company from his father in 1995, he didn’t pay much attention to flies or insects. Like his father before him, he was manufacturing everything needed to eliminate them — bug spray, ant powder, moth paper and fly traps.In the opinion of Reckhaus home flys mustn’t be killed but caught and released into nature Image: STAR-MEDIA/imago images One day, more than a decade ago,…