Author: DW

All five parties in Greenland’s parliament have united to reject US President Donald Trump’s calls to take over the strategically important Arctic island. “We, all party leaders, cannot accept the repeated statements on annexation and control of Greenland,” the parties said in a joint statement posted on Facebook. “We … find this conduct unacceptable to friends and allies in a defense alliance.” The party leaders released their statement on Friday after Trump repeated his desire to take control of Greenland during a meeting with NATO chief Mark Rutte. The autonomous island of nearly 57,000 people, who are mostly indigenous Inuit,…

Cuba’s national electrical grid has collapsed, the country’s Energy and Mines ministry said, after a substation failed. Blackouts spread across a large swath of western Cuba, including the capital, Havana on Friday. “At around 8:15 p.m. tonight, a breakdown … caused the significant loss of power in western Cuba and with it the fall of the national electricity system,” the Ministry of Energy and Mines posted on social media. The lights were out across all of Havana’s waterfront skyline, according to Reuters news agency, with only a scattered few tourist hotels operating on fuel-fired generators. Cuban human rights activist Elsa…

Steve Witkoff didn’t stay long in the Russian capital.According to footage posted of his motorcade leaving and returning to Moscow’s Vnukovo airport, he was here for little more than 12 hours. And for most of that, it seems, he was left waiting.Trump’s fixer leaves Moscow – peace talks latest Image: US special envoy Steve Witkoff talking to reporters at the White House. Pic: AP Mr Witkoff, a former property mogul who has become Donald Trump’s chief negotiator, and is often referred to as the president’s ‘fixer’, had been dispatched to Moscow to deliver the US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire…

Gold has surpassed another historic milestone on Friday (March 14), breaking through the psychologically significant barrier of $3,000 (€2,750) per troy ounce (31.1 grams) for the first time in history. Since the beginning of the year, gold prices have climbed more than 13%. The underlying reason for gold’s all-time high is a general uncertainty about economic outlooks, causing many people to fear for their money and seek crisis-proof investments. Gold retains its value regardless of inflation levels, remains secure during currency reforms, and is immune to exchange rate fluctuations. London is the most influential market for spot gold trading, as…

1. The origins of Holi According to the Hindu calendar, Holi falls on the last full moon of winter. Traditionally, it is celebrated in the northern parts of India, but is now popular across the country. Legend has it that a king of the demons — Hiranyakashyipu — demanded that everyone worship him as a god. But his son, Prahlad, opposed him, which made the king angry. Hiranyakashyipu devised many evil plans to kill his son, but failed miserably. Finally, the king’s sister, Holika, who was a sorceress, decided to make it her mission to kill the boy. She would sit in a…

The Trump administration’s science policies are driving scientists to look for jobs in Europe. Europe wants to help. But some warn against exploiting the situation.

The 30-year-old Leon Goretzka, who hadn’t played for Germany since November 2023 and missed last summer’s home Euro 2024 tournament, was included in the 23-man squad announced by national team coach Julian Nagelsmann on Thursday. Germany are to face Italy in the UEFA Nations League quarterfinals on March 20 and 23. The recall will come as something of a vindication for the midfielder, who has been in fine form for Bayern Munich of late – after reportedly having being told by the club last summer to look for a new employer. Replacements required Also working in Goretzka’s favor was the fact that Nagelsmann…

The European Union will invest $5 billion (€4.7 billion) in South African aid and development projects, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen announced Thursday. The majority of the investments will go to supporting the transition to clean energy, such as improving wind, solar and hydrogen power production. The funds will also be put into vaccine manufacturing. “South Africa wants to protect the health of [its] people… We Europeans want to diversify some of our most critical supply chains. This is what I call a true mutual interest,” von der Leyen said. The announcement came at the first bilateral summit between…

Two judges ordered US President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday to reinstate thousands of probationary federal workers who lost their jobs as part of mass firings across multiple government agencies. The federal judges, one in the US state of Maryland, the other in California, separately found legal problems with the way the mass terminations were carried out. They both ordered the employees at least temporarily brought back on the job. District Judge James Bredar in Maryland ruled that 18 of the agencies which had fired probationary employees en masse in recent weeks violated regulations governing the laying off of federal workers.…

Israel has been accused of carrying out “genocidal acts” against Palestinians during the Gaza conflict in a United Nations report.It alleges a broad range of violations perpetrated against Palestinian women, men, girls and boys since 7 October 2023 – which Israel has denied and rejected.”Israeli authorities have destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group,” said the report by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel.It alleges this was done by systematically destroying women’s healthcare facilities during the war in Gaza, and by “imposing…