Author: DW

The missionary position is a strange name for a face-to-face, horizontal, often heterosexual bedroom maneuver with the man on top. But the story behind the naming of this routine sexual position has more plot twists than one might expect. Did missionaries spread the idea of the missionary position? Since medieval times, Catholic popes, bishops and priests were meant to refrain from having sex, an indulgence that would distract from their devotion to God. But that does not mean they think other people should not be doing it. “The church of course needs people to go to the church, to keep the church alive. So, the more you have children, the more you are a…

Protesters who stormed the parliament building in Georgia’s Russia-backed breakaway region of Abkhazia refused to leave the premises on Saturday, despite the president’s offer to resign. Opposition activists stormed the parliament and a presidential administration building in the region’s capital, Sukhumi, on Friday, protesting an investment agreement with Moscow that would allow Russians to buy local real estate.Protesters are angry at a new investment deal with MoscowImage: Anzhela Kuchuberia/TASS/dpa/picture alliance Abkhazia, nestled between the Caucasus mountains and the Black Sea, has been thrown into turmoil over concerns that property prices will increase and that Moscow’s dominance in the region will be reinforced. What did…

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi on Saturday strongly denied a reported meeting between Tehran’s United Nations envoy and Elon Musk, the US billionaire and close adviser to President-elect Donald Trump. US media, including The New York Times, reported this week that Musk and Iran’s UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani met for an hour-long conversation in New York on Monday. “This was a fabricated story by American media, and the motives behind this can also be speculated,” Araqchi said in an interview with state television, echoing an earlier denial by Iran’s Foreign Ministry. Leadership did not give permission for meeting, minister…

Heavy rainfall from Tropical Storm Sara has caused widespread flooding along the northern coast of Honduras.More than 1,000 people have fled their homes to shelters, with the government declaring a national emergency and residents urged to avoid at-risk areas in the Central American country. Some trudged through waist-deep water along streets as they carried their belongings and pets. Image: A motorcyclist in a flooded street in La Ceiba, Honduras. Pic: Reuters Image: A bridge partially collapsed after the Cangrejal River overflowed its banks due to heavy rain. Pic: Reuters Between 15 and 25 inches of rain is expected to hit…

Donald Trump has vowed to raise US import tariffs and introduce a raft of new tax cuts when he returns to the White House for a second term on January 20. The plans, along with falling US interest rates, are expected to fuel a further rise in the US dollar, which surged to a one-year high when Trump was reelected. The dollar’s rise will have far-reaching consequences for the rest of the world, stoking producer import costs and fueling inflation. It will also make debt servicing among many low-income countries much harder, especially dollar-denominated loans payable from weaker local currencies. One continent where the effects of a…

It’s just before 6 p.m. on a fine fall weekday evening in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic (Czechia). A crowd has gathered near the Old Town Hall in the city center. It looks as if a huge protest march is about to get underway. But appearances are deceptive. The thousands of people standing close together have not come to demonstrate, but are waiting for Prague’s world-famous medieval astronomical clock to strike the hour. When it does, the tourists — who descend on Prague from all over the world — will whip out their cell phones to capture the…

Eder Militao’s scream as he tore a cruciate ligament in his knee for the second time in just over a year reverberated around the Bernabeu earlier this month. It also reverberated around the men’s football world as the horror of the player workload crisis was laid bare. His Real Madrid coach, Carlo Ancelotti, said “the demands of the schedule sometimes do not allow players to get the rest they need, and that increases the risk of injuries. It is a problem for everyone, not just us.” The Brazil defender, who has now felt the dreaded snap in both knees, is just one victim…

A fire at a neonatal intensive care unit in Uttar Pradesh, northern India, killed 10 newborn babies and injured at least 16 other children. “My deepest condolences to those who have lost their innocent children in this. I pray to God to give them the strength to bear this immense loss,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X. How did the fire break out Local authorities said the fire broke out at Jhansi city’s Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College’s neonatal intensive care unit around 10:45 pm local time (0515 GMT) on Friday.  Fifty-five infants were being treated in the ward.…

US President Joe Biden on Friday sought to use the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru to shore up relations with key allies before Donald Trump reenters the White House in January.  “We have now reached a moment of significant political change,” Biden said as he met with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on the sidelines of the summit in the Peruvian capital of Lima. “This is likely to be my last trilateral meeting with this important group, but I am proud to have helped be one of the parts of building this…

“Super high-IQ revolutionaries” who are willing to work 80+ hours a week are being urged to join Elon Musk’s new cost-cutting department in Donald Trump’s incoming US government.The X and Tesla owner will co-lead the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. And in a post on X, the official DOGE account put out a call to arms for people to sign up and help “dismantle government bureaucracy”.The post said: “We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE.”We don’t need more part-time idea generators. “We…