Author: DW

The first-ever African presidency of the G20 group will revolve around climate justice, state debt and minerals. But with international divisions, progress will be tough.

A plane carrying 181 people crashed at Muan International Airport in South Korea, killing at least 85 people, emergency officials said. “So far, two rescued and 85 dead,” the National Fire Agency said in a statement, with the rescue operation ongoing. The Jeju Air flight was returning from Bangkok, Thailand when an incident occurred during landing.  Emergency services and local news initially reported that the plane had a problem with its landing gear.  Later, the fire agency said the weather conditions were presumed to have caused the crash, alongside a bird strike. “The cause of the accident is presumed to be…

The charismatic former boss of Suzuki, who helped turn the Japanese compact vehicle specialist into a globally competitive enterprise, had died aged 94 after a battle with malignant lymphoma, the company said on Friday.  Osamu Suzuki became the company CEO in 1978 and was either chief executive, chairman or president until 2021, when — already in his 90s — he stepped down and took up an advisory role. The start of his tenure at the top coincided with some crucial milestones in Suzuki’s expansion beyond the Japanese car market, such as the launch of the small city car the Alto in 1979…

A species of tiny snail has been brought back from the brink of extinction.The Desertas Island land snails were believed to have disappeared altogether for 100 years, but experts have managed to breed them in captivity after discovering tiny populations on an isolated island called Desertas Grande in the Madeira Archipelago, Portugal. Now more than 1,300 of the critically endangered snails are being released into the wild on the nearby island of Bugio.The rescue effort began when a team of conservationists discovered two species of the snail surviving on the rocky cliffs of Desertas Grande.Fewer than 200 individual snails were…

Iran’s football ethics body has summoned a footballer after he was seen hugging a female fan before a game, local media reported on Friday. Ramin Rezaeian, the 34-year-old defender for Tehran’s Esteghlal team and the Iranian national team, reportedly embraced the fan ahead of the game with Chadormalou in the central province of Yazd on Thursday. What do we know about the incident? The Iranian Tasnim news agency reported that Rezaeian encountered the female fan when the players were on the bus transporting them. “The ethics committee of the Football Federation of Iran has summoned Ramin Rezaeian,” the news agency said,…

Salome Zourabichvili’s role as president was largely marked by symbolism and limited power. However, she has recently emerged as the face of the nationwide anti-government, pro-EU protests, which she defines as “a resistance movement against [the] pro-Russian government.” For almost a month, hundreds of thousands of Georgians have taken to the streets in the capital, Tbilisi, and across the country to express their fury over the disputed October election results and the government’s decision to suspend EU integration. Demonstrators chanting “Russians” and “slaves” have been enduring freezing temperatures, water cannons, tear gas and brutal police crackdowns.  With the ruling Georgian Dream party’s dramatic authoritarian…

President-elect Donald Trump asked the US Supreme Court on Friday to delay a law that would ban TikTok or force its sale by its Chinese owner ByteDance. The law, set to take effect on January 19 — one day before Trump’s inauguration — requires ByteDance to sell the platform to an American company or face a ban. Trump’s legal team asked the court to allow the incoming administration the time “to pursue a political resolution.” President Joe Biden signed the law in April in a bid to address TikTok’s potential national security risks, including its ties to China. The Supreme…

“If I had known that I would have to talk about this damned kitchen for the rest of my life, I would never have built it!” said 100-year-old Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky in an interview in 1998. The kitchen she designed in the 1920s rewrote architectural history and revolutionized the lives of public housing residents by creating a newly functional, fitted culinary space. Dubbed the “Frankfurt kitchen,” Schütte-Lihotzky created a piece of pioneering social architecture that has defined kitchens to this day.  The designer was also a women’s rights activist and was celebrated as a heroine of resistance against the Nazi dictatorship. Margarete, who…

1. Donald Trump 2.0 starts in January Unpredictability is likely to be the guiding force for 2025 and beyond. And nearly all of it will be in the hands of one man: Donald Trump, the President-elect of the world’s biggest economy. His so-called America First approach will reach far beyond the country’s borders. Trump’s whims will reshape the global order as we know it.  Prosperity, globalization and far-away wars will be decided in large part in Washington, DC. This is nothing new. What is new is the uncertainty of it all and the level of chaos that could surround such decisions. Trump has called international cooperation…

Passengers on a Eurostar train from London to Paris say they were stuck for hours in the Channel Tunnel after a train broke down.The 06.01am train left on time and was supposed to arrive at Paris Gare du Nord at 9.20am local time – but travellers were told they would get to Paris with a delay of about six hours. Eurostar said on its live departures and arrivals page: “Due to a technical problem, your train cannot complete its journey. It will now terminate at Calais Frethun where you’ll be transferred onto another train to your destination.”Lisa Levine posted on…