Author: DW

At the end of October, Berlin’s Prussian Cultural Institute (SPK) announced that three items used in sacred rituals are on the path to being restituted to the indigenous Kogi people of Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Maria mountains. The items to be returned include a staff, a basket and another woven item. All are used in sacred rituals still performed today by the Kogi. The three items are currently at Colombia’s anthropology and history institute, ICANH, on a loan basis. Research is being undertaken by Kogi representatives and in December, the formal restitution contract is set to be written up. Back in 2023,…

Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen will serve his “work of public interest” punishment for swearing when he visits Rwanda next week, the sport’s governing body said on Sunday. Verstappen, who won his fourth straight championship in Las Vegas last month, will travel to the Rwandan capital Kigali to collect his trophy at the FIA’s annual awards gala. The Dutchman was punished for using foul language during a press conference at the Singapore Grand Prix in September. Verstappen’s community service-style punishment The FIA outlined Verstappen’s punishment after the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. In Kigali, the Red Bull driver “will undertake some work…

Italy’s Trenitalia claims top spot as the best rail operator in Europe, according to a new study released on Monday. The ranking was published by the European NGO Transport & Environment (T&E). Trenitalia was followed by Swiss operator SBB and Czech company RegioJet. Austria’s ÖBB came in fourth, ahead of France’s SCNF. “Trenitalia stands out for its travel experience, SBB is the most punctual operator in Europe and RegioJet has some of the most affordable tickets,” T&E said in the report. Eurostar performs the worst On the other hand, expensive and unreliable service put Eurostar, which links France, Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany,…

Australia and Nauru have announced a landmark security treaty on Monday — a move which is seen as a broader effort by Canberra to push back against China’s influence in the Pacific. The treaty will provide the tiny Pacific island nation with 100 million Australian dollars (€60.6 million, $64 million) in direct budget support over five years. But it also gives Australia the final say over Nauru’s key infrastructure. “It’s a good day for the security and resilience of the Pacific region,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at a joint media briefing with Nauru’s President David Adeang. What do we…

Bashar al Assad started out as a doctor and ended up a mass murdering tyrant now on the run.The man who trained to save lives in Damascus and London would go on to take them in their hundreds of thousands, bombing hospitals and gassing his own people. He was a strangely unimpressive man to meet. Tall, slightly gauche, with a lisp and thin tufty moustache.Christopher Hitchens called him the human toothbrush. The writer recalled Hannah Arendt’s phrase the “banality of evil” when he remembered meeting another dictator, Argentina’s General Videla. But it applied equally well to Mr Assad.He was ordinary,…

In April 2024, hundreds of police officers raided homes and offices in 11 countries and arrested several individuals linked to JuicyFields, a company initially based in Berlin. JuicyFields had promised huge returns to those willing to invest in medical cannabis through its website. Almost 200,000 people did so and became victims of a scam. Prosecutors estimate the damage to be around €645 million ($678 million). DW’s Cannabis Cowboys podcast was early to investigate the scam and has received numerous awards since the final episode was published in March 2023. A network of investigative journalists in several European countries has now further investigated the…

The time for the reopening of Notre Dame de Paris has finally come, and there’s a sense of excitement in the air in the French capital. “Paris without Notre Dame is just not Paris — it’s really touching to see it reopen,” one Parisian lady told DW, beaming with joy, as she was walking along the Seine riverbank, not far from the monument. Starting on Saturday morning, people began taking up places in the front rows of what the authorities are calling “boxes” — fenced-off areas around Notre Dame with space for some 40,000 people. The spectators will be able to watch tonight’s ceremony…

In table tennis, China has been the undisputed No. 1 for decades, success that has been supplemented to a certain extent by regional neighbors. Now though, the rest of the world, led by Europe, wants to catch up to truly take the sport to the next level and increase its popularity on all continents. “Historically, table tennis has been seen as an Asian-dominated sport, largely due to China’s enduring excellence and its deep cultural connection to the game,” World Table Tennis CEO Steve Dainton told DW. Challenging China and changing this perception will not be easy. The country’s love affair with…

Is Alice Weidel really the most popular German politician in China? The leader of the populist, far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is probably the only member of Germany’s Parliament, the Bundestag, who speaks Chinese. As a student, Weidel researched and wrote her doctoral thesis on the pension system in China. Many reels about Weidel are circulating on Chinese state-controlled social media. The designated AfD candidate for chancellor in the 2025 election is popular in China because she opposes US and EU integration policies. The fact that Weidel could have a chance of becoming German Chancellor is one of countless…

South Korean police arrested former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun on Sunday for his alleged role in President Yoon Suk Yeol’s attempt to impose martial law, according to Yonhap News Agency. Kim was considered a key figure in Tuesday’s short-lived martial law decree. He had already resigned as defense minister. Police have launched an investigation into Kim, as well as Yoon and martial law commander Park An-su, for alleged insurrection. Police also raided Kim’s home and placed him under a travel ban, Yonhap reported. South Korean lawmakers fail to impeach embattled presidentTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports…