Author: DW

Two new US strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the eastern Pacific have killed five people in total, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said. Both vessels were “known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling,” were “transiting along a known narco-trafficking route” and were “carrying narcotics,” Hegseth said of the strikes in two separate posts on X on Wednesday. They were both in international waters, according to Hegseth.  Three people were killed in the attack announced late Wednesday, while two died in the previous strike, which apparently took place on Tuesday. Hegseth referred to those killed as…

Most of the Louvre Museum in Paris reopened to visitors on Wednesday morning, after several days closed following the daring jewel heist on the building early on Sunday. Only the Apollo Gallery, location of the theft and subject of ongoing police investigations, remained shut. The reopening came just hours before the museum’s director was set to face questions from French senators on how thieves made off with jewels of considerable historical signifiance and an estimated value of €88 million ($102 million).  The robbery renewed scrutiny of security measures at French museums, after two similar thefts in September at other sites,…

A major new study by 22 public service media organizations, including DW, has found that four of the most commonly used AI assistants misrepresent news content 45% of the time — regardless of language or territory. Journalists from a range of public service broadcasters, including the BBC (UK) and NPR (US), evaluated the responses of four AI assistants, or chatbots — ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot, Google’s Gemini and Perplexity AI. Measuring criteria such as accuracy, sourcing, providing context, the ability to editorialize appropriately and the ability to distinguish fact from opinion, the study found that almost half of all answers had at least…

Restoring vision — or at least improving it — for those with macular degeneration may soon be possible with a tiny chip and special glasses. Together, the chip and eyeglasses have been shown to restore central vision for a type of eye disease, known as Age-related macular degeneration (AMD). More than 80% of patients at trial sites across the United States, Germany, UK, Netherlands and Italy showed significant improvement in central vision following a year of monitoring. With the implant, the patients were able to read numbers and words at home and could improve their reading ability by 25 letters — or five…

Lena Oberdorf posted a black-and-white picture of herself on Instagram on Monday with the words “Until we meet again…” and an emoji of a broken heart. Last weekend, the 23-year-old FC Bayern Munich midfielder suffered a serious knee injury during a Bundesliga match in Cologne. The diagnosis: a torn cruciate ligament. It’s Oberdorf’s second within the span of just 15 months, again in her right knee. The cruciate ligament tear she suffered in a friendly against Austria in July 2024 kept her out of action for more than a year, missing both the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris and the Women’s Euros…

In the Canadian capital, Ottawa, on Monday, the defense ministers of Norway and Germany, Tore Sandvik and Boris Pistorius , received military honors from their Canadian counterpart, David McGuinty, at the start of what might informally be described as a sales presentation. Sandvik and Pistorius want to convince the Canadians to join a German–Norwegian project that has been running since 2023, to procure standardized, modern submarines. They hope to secure an order from Canada of up to 12 units over the next 10 years. This would provide a significant boost to the German and Norwegian companies that are building these submarines. As…

North Korea test fired ballistic missiles on Wednesday, South Korea’s military has said. Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles flew east, with the South Korean Yonhap news agency saying it was launched toward the East Sea (also known as the Sea of Japan) off North Korea’s east coast, without specifying where they had landed. What else do we know about the latest missile launch from North Korea? South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said multiple short-range ballistic missiles, which were launched from an area to the south of the North Korean capital Pyongyang, had been detected. The South Korean military said the missiles flew around…

Over 30 million people in Sudan — 66% of the population — are currently in need of humanitarian assistance. More than 12 million have been forcibly displaced since the Sudanese civil war broke out in April 2023 between the country’s army and a powerful paramilitary group. Almost 4 million children under the age of 5 face severe and acute malnutrition. Women and girls are particularly exposed to sexual and gender-based violence. “In my experience, it’s the worst humanitarian crisis in the world,” Samy Guessabi, country director in Sudan for the NGO Action Against Hunger, told DW. He was attending the event, “Khartoum Calling,” which was organized by…

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the new currency of global power, and China is amassing it at scale. In 2017, China declared its ambition to become the world’s leading AI power by 2030 and has pumped in billions, spurring domestic innovation. Between the state and the private sector, the country is projected to spend nearly $100 billion (€85.76 billion) on AI in 2025 alone. So far this year, China has stunned the global tech community with the rise of DeepSeek, a startup whose large language model (LLM) rivals top Western brands like ChatGPT and Grok. DeepSeek delivers mostly comparable performance at a fraction of the cost…

After a frustrating false start, Afghanistan’s women’s national football team are set to play their first official match since 2021 in Morocco. On Monday, three days before the “FIFA Unites: Women’s Series” was due to kick off in the United Arab Emirates, football’s world governing body, FIFA, announced Morocco would be the new hosts. The tournament was taken out of the UAE after the Afghan players were denied visas to enter the country. Initially slated for October 23, the matches will now begin on October 26, giving players, coaches and organizers a tight timeframe to travel, acclimatize and train before the matches. Fourth team…