Author: DW

With the start of the coming Persian year on March 21, the budget of Iran’s state broadcaster will be increased by around 50% to €35 million ($36m). However, this hike comes amid an ongoing economic crisis in Iran, where the population is becoming poorer by the day due to rampant inflation. According to a report by the parliamentary research center, the share of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, or IRIB, in the total government budget will be higher than the budgets of ten ministries together. In Iran, media are controlled by the state according to the constitution and private media are…

Bad health advice and fraudulent cures are as old as time. Early Christians were instructed to ingest devotional images of saints to heal ailments and pain, while quacks in the 18th century sold so-called “snake oil” as a cure-all for health problems. In the age of social media, medical misinformation has spread far quicker than any travelling charlatan or priest could ever achieve. With millions of followers at the tap of a finger, influencers seemingly wield significant power when it comes to health and medical advice. A new study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, has found around 85%…

Bayern Munich are Germany’s most successful football club. Thirty-three Bundesliga titles along with 20 German Cup trophies and six Champions League (formerly known as European Champions Clubs’ Cup) wins are unmatched. The Bavarian club’s trophy cabinet also includes the European Cup Winners’ Cup and the UEFA Cup, now known as the Europa League. There are also two Intercontinental Cups and two FIFA Club World Cup trophies, just to name a few of Bayern’s achievements. The club however started out very small 125 years ago, when a group of young men met at Cafe Gisela near the Hofgarten in Munich’s city center on February 27, 1900. The…

When police escorted him to the office of the attorney general on Wednesday, the far-right Romanian populist Calin Georgescu did not look anything like the steely hero he likes to present himself as on social media. Five hours later, when Georgescu emerged, he flashed a triumphant smile before balancing on his crutches to show the same gesture that South African billionaire Elon Musk recently shocked the world with. First, he placed his right palm over his heart, then he extended his arm into what can only be interpreted as a Nazi salute. Shortly before the incident, Musk had posted on his…

The cause of death of Oscar-winner Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, remained unknown on Friday, according to the sheriff leading the investigation Hackmanand Arakawa were found dead with one of their dogs on their property by contractors on Wednesday. At a news conference, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said the medical examiner’s initial examination showed no sign of carbon monoxide poisoning. Carbon monoxide is a colorless and odorless gas produced from kitchen appliances and other fuel-burning items; it can be fatal in poorly ventilated areas.  Mendoza also said an examination of 95-year-old Hackman’s pacemaker saw it last recorded activity on February…

The Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is known around the world and may rightly call itself the “greatest show on Earth.” During the 5-day festivities, beginning this Friday and lasting until Ash Wednesday next week, thousands of colorfully dressed dancers’ parade through the Sambadrome, a large, open-air venue, while millions more take to the streets for the famous so-called Blocos, meaning street parties. According to the city of Rio de Janeiro, an estimated 7 million people are out celebrating during Carnival — and quite naturally they spend a lot of money. Carnival in Rio is not just a cultural phenomenon,…

Doctors have suggested that the Pope has overcome the most critical phase of his pneumonia infection – as the pontiff marks two weeks in hospital.In an update on Friday morning, the Vatican said: “As in past days, the night was tranquil and the Pope now is resting.” This morning’s update marked the second day in a row where doctors avoided saying the pontiff was in a critical condition, suggesting he has overcome the most acute phase of the infection.But given the complexity of his lung infection, they said “further days of clinical stability are needed” before they revise their prognosis…

At first look, this could be any group of young schoolchildren learning English as a second language. They repeat together the names of the different everyday objects shown on a screen: “ball!”; “doll!” But then the teacher adds an extra task: The children are to yell out the word “danger” every time they recognize a picture of a toy that’s been booby-trapped with a bomb or a mine. It’s more than a game: To harm Ukrainians, Russian soldiers have been found to hide munitions rigged to explode upon discovery in a wide range of random objects, including in children’s toys. This is…

After months of building, the biggest locust swarm recorded in 70 years swept across 10 countries in East Africa in spring 2020. The damage to crops was estimated at $8.5 billion (€8.1 billion) in a region where 23 million people face severe food insecurity. During these invasions, desert locusts (Schistocerca gregaria) eat their own weight in food every day.  The biblical-scale plague ate through 160,000,000 kilograms of food a day — enough to feed 800,000 people for a year. Scientists have been trying to understand how individual locusts gather in swarms for decades. Knowing their behavior would help with predicting and managing outbreaks.  A new model,…

Fenerbahce’s coach Jose Mourinho has been handed a four-match ban and a fine by the Turkish Football Federation on Thursday, after his “offensive” comments about Turkish referees in the aftermath of a match against Galatasaray.  The 62-year old Portuguese will have to pay 1,617,000 Turkish lira (€42,616 , $44,000) for criticizing the match officials when speaking to the media after a Super Lig draw on Monday.  Mourinho already served one of his suspended four games on Thursday when he was absent from the bench for Fenerbahce’s 4-1 Turkish Cup win at Gaziantep. Fenerbahce has appealed the four-game ban, according to Britain’s Sky Sports News.…