Author: DW

It was perhaps the clearest sign yet that Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s political maneuvering has backfired. On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump stood alongside the tech billionaire and a red Tesla Model S outside the White House, declaring he was buying the electric car for his staff to use and paying full price. Trump’s unprecedented endorsement of the electric vehicle (EV) giant comes after months of mounting criticism over Musk’s deepening involvement in both US and foreign politics — including support for far-right parties in Europe — and after billions of dollars were wiped off Tesla’s shares. That Musk sought the president’s public backing suggests that protests,…

Content warning: This article describes scenes of physical abuse and sexual violence. With her legs crossed, in beige kitten heels and suit trousers, Linda Loran sits upright on a bar stool and smiles as she reads out some of the sexist hate comments under her TikTok videos: “You weigh 50 kilos and your bags weigh four times as much as your brain.” The audience bursts out in laughter.  Loran is a guest at tonight’s edition of the “Monday Talks,” a series of feminist talks held in a bar in Berlin’s neighborhood of Neukölln. The evening is organized by TikTok activist Alina Kuhl; the four other speakers…

Is US President Donald Trump bluffing when he says he will take control of the Panama Canal or Greenland “one way or the other,” or about withdrawing the US from NATO? It is difficult to tell. He has been known to both follow through and roll back on his threats.  Unpredictability is a hallmark of Trump’s style of negotiation. He has spent a decade in politics using metaphors of gaming, gambling and bluffing in his “dealmaking” with other leaders.   Take his now infamous spat during a meeting in late February 2025 with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office:…

Rwanda sitting on top of its World Cup qualification group may be an unusual sight, but if the team can defeat Nigeria on March 21 in Kigali, there will be a real prospect of something even rarer — an appearance on football’s biggest stage, the World Cup. The Super Eagles have collected just three points from the first four games in the group, while Rwanda will go seven clear if they can take a victory. Despite the current placing, it won’t be easy for the hosts — ranked 124 in the world, 80 places below their opponents. Nigeria have six World Cup…

All five parties in Greenland’s parliament have united to reject US President Donald Trump’s calls to take over the strategically important Arctic island. “We, all party leaders, cannot accept the repeated statements on annexation and control of Greenland,” the parties said in a joint statement posted on Facebook. “We … find this conduct unacceptable to friends and allies in a defense alliance.” The party leaders released their statement on Friday after Trump repeated his desire to take control of Greenland during a meeting with NATO chief Mark Rutte. The autonomous island of nearly 57,000 people, who are mostly indigenous Inuit,…

Cuba’s national electrical grid has collapsed, the country’s Energy and Mines ministry said, after a substation failed. Blackouts spread across a large swath of western Cuba, including the capital, Havana on Friday. “At around 8:15 p.m. tonight, a breakdown … caused the significant loss of power in western Cuba and with it the fall of the national electricity system,” the Ministry of Energy and Mines posted on social media. The lights were out across all of Havana’s waterfront skyline, according to Reuters news agency, with only a scattered few tourist hotels operating on fuel-fired generators. Cuban human rights activist Elsa…

Steve Witkoff didn’t stay long in the Russian capital.According to footage posted of his motorcade leaving and returning to Moscow’s Vnukovo airport, he was here for little more than 12 hours. And for most of that, it seems, he was left waiting.Trump’s fixer leaves Moscow – peace talks latest Image: US special envoy Steve Witkoff talking to reporters at the White House. Pic: AP Mr Witkoff, a former property mogul who has become Donald Trump’s chief negotiator, and is often referred to as the president’s ‘fixer’, had been dispatched to Moscow to deliver the US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire…

Gold has surpassed another historic milestone on Friday (March 14), breaking through the psychologically significant barrier of $3,000 (€2,750) per troy ounce (31.1 grams) for the first time in history. Since the beginning of the year, gold prices have climbed more than 13%. The underlying reason for gold’s all-time high is a general uncertainty about economic outlooks, causing many people to fear for their money and seek crisis-proof investments. Gold retains its value regardless of inflation levels, remains secure during currency reforms, and is immune to exchange rate fluctuations. London is the most influential market for spot gold trading, as…

1. The origins of Holi According to the Hindu calendar, Holi falls on the last full moon of winter. Traditionally, it is celebrated in the northern parts of India, but is now popular across the country. Legend has it that a king of the demons — Hiranyakashyipu — demanded that everyone worship him as a god. But his son, Prahlad, opposed him, which made the king angry. Hiranyakashyipu devised many evil plans to kill his son, but failed miserably. Finally, the king’s sister, Holika, who was a sorceress, decided to make it her mission to kill the boy. She would sit in a…

The Trump administration’s science policies are driving scientists to look for jobs in Europe. Europe wants to help. But some warn against exploiting the situation.