Author: DW

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer has announced he will resign in the coming days after coalition talks between his Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) and the Social Democrats (SPÖ) collapsed. “I will stand down as chancellor and as leader of the People’s Party in the coming days and enable an orderly transition,” Nehammer said in a video statement on social media. The conservative ÖVP and center-left SPÖ had been engaged in negotiations aimed at forming a coalition government without the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ). The liberal NEOS party had already withdrawn from talks on Friday. “We have negotiated long and hard [but] an agreement with the…

The Mali army, on Saturday, said it arrested the leader of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS) — an affiliate of the terror organization in the Sahel region. The army announced that it arrested two people, Mahamad Ould Erkehile “alias Abu Rakia,” and Abu Hash, describing the latter as “chief of first order.” What did Mali’s military say? A statement from the General Staff of the Malian Armed Forces said it carried out the operation on Friday in which several of the group’s fighters were also killed. It further claimed to have recovered material intended for the manufacture of improvised explosive…

Going into 2025, the German economy remains stuck in recession, with a crisis in the country’s all-important automotive industry significantly contributing to the downturn. Europe’s biggest carmaker, Volkswagen (VW), for instance, is planning to cut thousands of jobs in Germany over the next few years.Mass layoffs are also on the horizon at other German automakers, affecting many of the industry’s multiple suppliers. The current state of affairs in the German car industry is plain to see for everyone, but opinions diverge when it comes to identifying the causes of the crisis. Industry expert Stefan Bratzel from the Center of Automotive Management describes the…

More than 6,000 prisoners have been released in Myanmar as part of an amnesty to mark the 77th anniversary of the country’s independence from Britain.The head of Myanmar’s military government has granted amnesties for 5,864 prisoners from the Southeast Asian country, as well as 180 foreigners who will now be deported, state-run media said. The freed inmates included just a small proportion of hundreds of political detainees locked up for opposing army rule since the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.Myanmar’s military takeover in February 2021 was met with a huge nonviolent resistance, which…

Norovirus is spiking across the United States this winter, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Norovirus is a highly contagious virus that spreads via contaminated surfaces, food and water, and close contact with infected individuals. It’s also known as the ‘vomiting bug.’ Medics first discovered noroviruses in 1972 using an electron microscope. Since then, they’ve found a large variety of different noroviruses, several of which are contagious to humans. Here’s what to know about the virus and how it spreads. Where are Noroviruses found? Noroviruses can be found all over the world. They’re…

What accusations have been made? On December 28, former elite gymnast Tabea Alt used her Instagram account to go public about abuse she said she had been subjected to at the national gymnastics center in Stuttgart and “in German women’s gymnastics in general.” The 24-year-old wrote that she was even made to perform and compete in Stuttgart while suffering from broken bones. “It is not an isolated case: eating disorders, punitive training, painkillers, threats and humiliation were the order of the day. Today I know it was systematic physical and mental abuse,” she wrote. She said she had detailed the…

Austria’s centrist Neos party has quit trilateral coalition talks with two larger centrist parties, including Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s conservative People’s Party (ÖVP). Neos leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger said she informed Nehammer, Social Democratic leader Andreas Babler and President Alexander Van der Bellen on Friday that the party “won’t continue” the talks. The collapse of the monthslong talks, ongoing since November, cast doubt on Nehammer’s ability to form a new coalition government. The ÖVP failed to secure a majority in the September election last year and was outperformed by the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), which won the election with some 29% of…

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to South Korea, Japan and France between January 4-9, the State Department said Friday, in what is expected to be his last overseas trip in office. The US top diplomat will visit South Korea at a time of political turmoil in the country. In the latest development there, a standoff between investigators and suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol’s team prevented investigators from arresting Yoon. Blinken to meet with his South Korean counterpart  Blinken will meet with his counterpart Cho Tae-yul on Monday, Seoul’s foreign ministry said in a statement, to discuss the “South Korea-US alliance, South Korea-US-Japan…

When Britons voted to leave the European Union in 2016, UK passports no longer gave holders the right to travel freely around Europe. In short, Brexit actually changed the identity of UK citizens: They were no longer Europeans. Many Britons living in Germany, for example, decided to apply for German citizenship to obtain a German passport so they could legally remain in the EU without needing a visa. For some UK nationals, this might have only worsened their sense of displacement. But not that long ago, one could travel across borders without passports. Passports a relatively new invention In fact, passports…

After months of opposition, US President Joe Biden on Friday blocked the proposed buyout of the United States Steel Corporation, or US Steel, by Japan’s Nippon Steel. The second-largest US steelmaker had previously approved the $14.9-billion (€14.5-billion) takeover bid, saying it would help protect the ailing firm from intense competition from abroad, including China. Nippon Steel had hoped the acquisition would help hike its global steel output by nearly a third, to 85 million tons. Nippon Steel, headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, is Japan’s largest steelmakerImage: Richard A. Brooks/AFP However, the merger became a significant issue for Democrats and Republicans in November’s US presidential election, as Pennsylvania, where US…