Author: DW

HIV is “like a time bomb,” said James Riley, a microbiologist at University of Pennsylvania, US. Even now — decades after the virus was identified — and with antiretroviral drugs allowing us to supress it before it develops into AIDS, 40 million people still live with the condition. Scientists are still trying to find a cure for HIV. Because, “unless people get PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) therapy every day, HIV will go off and restart the infection again,” said Riley. Scott Kitchen, an expert in infectious diseases at University of California Los Angeles, US, described antiretroviral HIV drugs as a “miracle” of modern medicine, but…

The start of the Six Nations in February will have many rugby union fans excited about watching some of the best European players in action. But beyond the headline competition lies an historic European championship, a tournament for the continent’s second-tier nations who in 2025 have a sports-changing chance on the line. This year’s championship will act as the qualifier for the men’s rugby World Cup in Australia in 2027, and for the first time there are four spots up for grabs. In the year Germany’s rugby union will celebrate its 100-year anniversary, the men’s team has a chance to make history.…

US President Donald Trump’s administration has revoked a decision that would protect some 600,000 Venezuelans from deportation, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on Wednesday. Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, had ordered an extension of the deportation relief from April 2025 to October 2026. What do we know about the Trump administration’s plan to deport Venezuelans? Noem told the Fox News broadcaster that she had rescinded the Biden administration’s extension, which also gave Venezuelans access to work permits through the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program. Trump had already attempted to block the program during his first term in 2017-2021, but the…

The Trump administration on Wednesday rescinded a sweeping directive to freeze all federal grants and aid after the move was temporarily blocked by a federal judge. The funding freeze, which came into action on Tuesday, is believed to have disrupted tens of billions of dollars in spending across healthcare, education, disaster relief, housing assistance and other programs. A memo sent by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to government agencies included a series of yes or no questions including “does this program promote gender ideology?” and “does this program promote or support in any way abortion?” The move set…

The musical thriller about a drug lord who wants to start a new life as a woman could win many Oscars. Why do so many Mexicans hate it?

Lower energy costs, lower taxes, more financial incentives for investment, more flexible labor laws, an end to social security payments and above all, less bureaucracy — that is what German businesses are demanding from the country’s next government. “The economy is shrinking. Unemployment is growing. Germany has become unattractive for investors,” that is how Rainer Dulger, president of the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations (BDA), summed up the situation at the last employers’ conference in late October 2024. Well-trained and specialized employees have become rare. Regulations and bureaucracy, said Dulger, have grown at a rate proportional to the growth of other…

Australian police say they have foiled a planned antisemitic attack after discovering a caravan containing explosives alongside a list of Jewish targets.Police found enough explosives to make a bomb with a blast of around 130ft (40m) hidden in a caravan in the Sydney suburb of Dural on 19 January, New South Wales deputy police commissioner David Hudson told a news conference on Wednesday. The substance discovered was Powergel, an explosive which is often used in the mining industry.Officers also found a list of Jewish targets, which Mr Hudson refused to identify but said the relevant members of the community have…

Overcrowding and stampedes of people are frequently reported at mass gatherings in India, often at religious events, where millions of devotees come together for a special event.  India’s 2025 Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, was dubbed a “mega festival”. It saw many pilgrims die and others get injured when — it appears, according to early reports — a surging crowd spill out of an area cordoned off by police and trample bystanders. Other reports on January 29, 2025, indicated that the stampede started when tens of millions of people gathered to take a holy dip on the most auspicious day of…

Were there really regular sports activities in concentration camps? The Nazi concentration camps were places of horror and death, of torture and humiliation. The guards used sporting activities on a regular basis to achieve this end. “The guards ordered prisoners to do push-ups or leapfrogs, or to run until they collapsed from exhaustion,” sports historian Veronika Springmann, the author of the book “Gunst und Gewalt – Sport in nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslagern” (Favor and Violence – Sport in National Socialist Concentration Camps) told DW. Those who were lying on the ground were usually kicked and insulted by the guards, she says. “This was…

Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic resigned on Tuesday, as months of student and civic protests began to take their political toll. Vucevic is a member of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and a close political ally of President Aleksandar Vucic. The mayor of Novi Sad, Serbia’s second-largest city, and fellow SNS party member Milan Djuric also resigned. “This shows that we who were elected to assume responsibility are assuming responsibility so that the situation does not spill over onto the streets and lead to disputes between citizens and divisions in society,” Vucevic said at a press conference in Belgrade. Shock…