Author: DW

Lahtaw Kai draws an imaginary mountain into the air with her hands and uses her fingers to dot it with holes. “At the top of the mountains, they drill holes and then pour chemicals like ammonium nitrate into the ground to extract the rare earth minerals at the bottom,” the Myanmar environment activist told DW.  Lahtaw Kai — whose name we’ve changed for security reasons — was illustrating the so-called in-situ leaching technique, which has been applied for decades in mining rare earths in Myanmar’s northern Kachin state. The process begins at the top of the mountains, where chemicals are injected into the earth through a network of…

A medical charity chief has spoken out about the deaths of a doctor’s nine children in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, and the “almost impossibility” of providing care in the region.Warning: This article contains graphic details of child deathsChris Lockyear – the secretary general of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders – told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips the bodies of nine of paediatrician Alaa al Najjar’s 10 children arrived at the Nasser Medical Complex, in the city of Khan Younis, while she was on shift.The attack in southern Gaza on Friday also left her husband,…

Jafar Panahi never set out to be a political filmmaker. “In my definition, a political filmmaker defends an ideology where the good follow it and the bad oppose it,” the Iranian director says. “In my films, even those who behave badly are shaped by the system, not personal choice,” he tells DW. But for more than a decade, Panahi, the winner of the 2025 Palme d’Or, the Cannes Film Festival’s top prize, has had little choice. Following his support for the opposition Green Movement protests, the director of “The White Balloon” and “The Circle,” was handed a 20-year ban on filmmaking…

Stuttgart survived a late scare against underdogs Arminia Bielefeld to win the German Cup final 4-2 at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin on Saturday night. The Bundesliga side had been cruising after going four goals up with over 20 minutes left to play.  But Stuttgart were made to hold off a late fightback from the Third Division champions, who scored twice in the last 10 minutes. No fairytale ending for Arminia Nick Woltemade opened the scoring in the 15th minute to settle any nerves the Stuttgart fans might have been feeling against a Bielefeld side that had dumped out Bundesliga…

Skip next section Prisoner exchange expected to continue05/25/2025May 25, 2025Prisoner exchange expected to continueA prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia that is expected to be the biggest in more than three years of war is set to continue on Sunday, officials said. In negotiations held in Istanbul earlier this month, Kyiv and Moscow agreed to swap 1,000 prisoners of war and civilian detainees each. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russia’s Defense Ministry said 307 soldiers were swapped on Saturday, after 390 soldiers and civilians were released on Friday. “We expect more to come tomorrow,” Zelenskyy said on his official Telegram channel on…

Ever heard of a DDoS attack? The abbreviation stands for Distributed Denial of Service — a deliberate blockade of digital services. If you have ever tried for hours to access the tax office’s website, a university, or a telecommunications provider without success, it could have been because of a DDoS attack. Municipal authorities, parliaments, political parties or prominent companies are often the targets. For example, on February 12, in the northern German city-state of Bremen,  residents could not contact the police for almost two hours. It turned out that 18,000 online requests per minute had inundated the servers. The system collapsed under the…

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum chose a symbolic stage for shooting back at US President Donald Trump’s proposal for taxing remittances, called “remesas” in Spanish-speaking Latin America. During the construction ceremony for the Los Cabos Regional General Hospital in Baja California Sur on Sunday (May 18), she stressed that the US “can’t tax people twice when they’re already paying taxes.” By choosing this setting, Sheinbaum visually reinforced the social and political dimension of the US regulation, which is causing widespread concern across the entire region.Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is one of the most vocal critics of Trump’s taxation planImage: Alfredo Estrella/AFP/Getty Images…

The apolitical dissident director Jafar Panahi never set out to be a political filmmaker. “In my definition, a political filmmaker defends an ideology where the good follow it and the bad oppose it,” the Iranian director says. “In my films, even those who behave badly are shaped by the system, not personal choice,” he tells DW. But for more than a decade, Panahi has had little choice. Following his support for the opposition Green Movement protests, the director of “The White Balloon” and “The Circle,” was handed a 20-year ban on filmmaking and international travel in 2010. That didn’t stop…

Whatever its legitimacy, the organizers of the Enhanced Games know how to grab attention. A launch on Wednesday was accompanied by a glossy one-hour film, a sales platform for prescription performance enhancers and the claim of a new 50-meters freestyle world record by Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev. “He should be retired, but in fact, he’s swimming faster than any human being has ever done so. Why? Because he used technology and science to enhance his performance,” boasted founder Aron D’Souza. “Once the world realizes that, I think everyone is going to want it. Every middle-aged guy who once played competitive sport and is now suffering…

After 11 weeks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government finally relented: this week,trucks have been allowed to drive into the Gaza Strip to bring humanitarian aid to the population, which is at risk of famine as the war continues to rage. Netanyahu said it was important that the “red line” of starvation not be crossed in order to maintain international support. According to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), an Israeli Defense Ministry unit that oversees civilian policy in the Palestinian occupied territories, 198 trucks carrying humanitarian aid passed through the Kerem Shalom crossing between May 20 and May…