Author: DW

NASA scientists on Thursday announced that the Parker Solar Probe had survived zooming by the sun at a record-breaking closest distance. The craft collected precious data which researchers say will aid work on solar wind, particles and the Sun’s atmosphere. What we know about the mission The mission was carried out by a team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Maryland. “The team was out of contact with the spacecraft during closest approach, which occurred on Dec. 24, with Parker Solar Probe zipping just 3.8 million miles from the solar surface while moving about 430,000 miles per hour,” Michael Buckley, spokesperson…

“When they are in the mood and put their foot on the gas, they make it difficult for the opposition, that’s exceptionally good,” said Julian Nagelsmann of attackers Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala after an international against Hungary in November. “When they look for and find each other, they’re very, very good to watch.” The coach of the German national football team is not the only one to sing the praises of the ball wizards. “Both are already world class at their young age,” former national coach Joachim Löw, who led Germany to their last World Cup win in 2014, said recently. “They’re incredibly…

On January 1, Hungary will pass the baton of the European Union’s six-month rotating presidency to Poland, drawing a curtain on what has been a turbulent half-year for the bloc. Instead of acting as a neutral mediator, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban set out on a collision course with Brussels and angered his partners with his willful “peace mission” and surprise visits to Moscow, Kyiv and Beijing that were not agreed in advance. “Poland’s presidency of the EU Council will be a counterpoint to what has happened over the past six months,” predicts Eastern Europe expert Kai-Olaf Lang of the German…

Police in Tyrol, Austria said a father and son were killed by a sudden avalanche on Thursday around lunchtime.  A group of four — a father, his two sons and a friend of the family — had set out from Schwendberg near Hippach, bound for the Rosskopf mountain peak on backcountry skis.  Police said in a statement that just before noon the group were trying to descend a steep eastern peak in single file, part of practices aimed at reducing the risk of avalanches. During their descent, “a huge slab of snow broke loose and swept the 51-year-old father and his 22-year-old son about 300 meters…

Not even the cold temperatures in early December could deter the members of a padel club in Niederwalgern, just over 80 kilometers (about 50 miles) north of Frankfurt, from getting together for the last tournament of the season. “Padel has become a passion,” said Marco Otto, who took up the new sport, which is more about fun and community than competition, around two years ago. “It’s a fast, dynamic game.” Little effort for a lot of fun Padel is one of the fastest-growing sports in the world. The smaller courts are similar to tennis, with a net in the middle and…

The United Kingdom became the 12th member of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP, as of Sunday.  The previous British government signed the accession treaty last year, with most members of the bloc having since ratified the UK’s entry. Officials hope membership could boost Britain’s struggling economy by as much as $2.5 billion (roughly €2.4 billion) per year.  The country is trying to strike new trade deals abroad in the aftermath of leaving the European Union following its 2016 referendum on Brexit, with EU member states still accounting for over 40% of UK exports and more than 50%…

A Syrian former equestrian champion has told how he was jailed and tortured for 21 years after he beat Bashar al Assad’s older brother in a competition. Adnan Kassar, once a celebrated figure in the country’s sports scene, spoke to Sky News about his ordeal for the first time following the fall of the Assad family regime’s more than 50-year rule. He won multiple gold medals and captained the national equestrian team in the late 1980s, with his career peaking in 1993 at the third International Equestrian Championship in Latakia, where his flawless performance secured victory for the team.Mr Kassar…

Why is Youssoufa Moukoko in the headlines? A recently-released documentary from German broadcaster ProSieben has made a series of claims about the Borussia Dortmund striker, who is currently on loan at French club Nice. ‘Tricks, Cheats, Deception – The Million Dollar Business with Football Talent’, states that the Germany international is 24, rather than his previously accepted age of 20. Among other claims, it also says that Youssoufa Moukoko is not his real name. The claims are made by a man named Joseph Moukoko, who previously claimed to be the footballer’s father and now says he helped muddy the waters in…

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser on Wednesday urged the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) not to exploit an attack on a Christmas market in the city of Magdeburg last week. Five people were killed and over 200 were injured when a car was driven through crowds at the Christmas market in the city in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. What did Faeser say? “To the AfD, I can only say: Any attempt to exploit such a terrible act and to abuse the suffering of the victims is despicable,” Faeser said in comments to the Funke Media Group, a major publisher of…

At least 14 people were killed in clashes in Syria’s western Tartus province on Wednesday as security forces of the new regime clashed with a group of supporters loyal to the ousted Bashar Assad regime, according to a local war monitor and the new interior ministry. What do we know so far? The unrest broke out as Islamist forces sought to arrest an officer of the Assad regime, who was among those “responsible for the crimes of the Saydnaya prison,” the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement, identifying him as Mohammed Kanjo Hassan. It said he…