Author: DW

Dozens of people armed with sticks and firecrackers set a tram on fire in Amsterdam on Monday, police said. It was not clear whether the unrest was related to attacks on Israeli football fans last week. Also on Monday, police made several additional arrests related to the attacks. It comes a day after riot police broke up a pro-Palestinian protest on Dam Square. What else do we know about the tram incident in Amsterdam? The tram caught fire at the ’40-’45 Square in western Amsterdam, according to a police spokesman. The windows of the tram were also shattered. The spokesman…

North Korea has ratified a mutual defense treaty with Russia, state media reported on Tuesday. The deal calls for each side to assist the other in case of an armed attack. The announcement comes days after Ukraine’s Defense Ministry reported its forces clashed with North Korean units stationed in the Russian border region of Kursk. What did North Korean media say about the deal? North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said the deal “was ratified as a decree” by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “The treaty will take effect from the day when both sides exchanged the ratification instruments,” KCNA…

Italy has reached a deal with German flag carrier Lufthansa on the sale of a stake in ITA Airways, the Italian government announced on Monday. The deal still needs to be cleared by the the European Commission. What else do we know about the deal with Lufthansa? Rome and Lufthansa had been locked into over a year of tough negotiations on the price and terms of the deal. Italian media reported that the deal faced a delay last week when Lufthansa requested a discount on the of €10 million ($10.65 million) on the €325 million purchase price of a 49% stake in ITA.…

In a small kitchen in al-Fawar — a village near Sidon, about 40 kilometers (24 miles) south of Beirut, Lebanon — a dozen women of all ages are cooking rice and chicken in large, gas-fueled pots. Among them, and overseeing every detail to ensure everything runs smoothly, is 42-year-old Zainab Jumaa, president of the Zaituna Association for Social Development. The women are preparing meals to serve hundreds of displaced people from southern Lebanon, who were fleeing Israeli airstrikes and are now waiting anxiously for a comforting plate of Palestinian-style mansaf, made of rice, tender chicken, and fried pine nuts. However, Zaituna can…

The fight against climate change is “bigger than one election”, US envoy John Podesta has said. Mr Podesta was speaking at the UN COP29 climate talks after his party lost the White House to Republican and climate sceptic Donald Trump. The re-election of Mr Trump, who is expected to again pull the United States out of global climate treaties and efforts, sent concern through the almost 200 countries gathering in Azerbaijan for the climate summit.But a defiant Mr Podesta said: “This is not the end of our fight for a cleaner, safer planet.”Facts are still facts. Science is still science.…

1. Carnival begins The 11th day of the 11th month is a magical date for Carnival lovers. In German Carnival strongholds, which include the Rhineland, and especially Cologne, Bonn, Düsseldorf, Aachen and Mainz, the season officially begins at precisely 11:11 a.m. on November 11. A jester called “Hoppeditz” awakes in Düsseldorf. Cologne greets its triumvirate of fools — Prinz, Bauer and Jungfrau (prince, peasant and maiden) — and the traditional “Fool’s Charter” is read in Mainz, accompanied by the famous “Narhalla” parade. These celebrations usually take place on the main square or in front of city hall in different cities. People go out…

The Algerian Olympic Committee (COA) has criticized the “ongoing and baseless attacks” on Imane Khelif, after an unverified leaked medical assessment allegedly showed the Paris Olympic boxing gold medalist as having internal testes and no uterus. “These attacks, often based on unsubstantiated allegations, aim to tarnish the image of an athlete who has brought honor to our nation on the international stage,” the COA told DW in a statement. “We firmly condemn these attempts at destabilization, which have no place in the world of sports.”  Meanwhile, Jacques Young, an endocrinologist at Bicetre Hospital in Paris who reportedly co-authored the assessment, has suggested to DW that his…

US President-elect Donald Trump has spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin about ending the war in Ukraine in a phone call reported by the Washington Post on Sunday.  The newspaper, citing several people familiar with the call who spoke on the basis of anonymity, reported that Trump had reminded Putin of the sizable US military presence in Europe. The Post also reported that Trump was keen to have further conversations to talk about “the resolution” of the war soon.  Trump has criticized the scale of military and financial support for Kyiv under US President Joe Biden’s administration, while the soon-to-be president has vowed to end the war quickly, without specifying how. Trump spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr…

US President-elect Donald Trump has spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin via a phone call and urged him not to escalate the war in Ukraine, the Washington Post reported on Sunday. Trump held the call with Putin from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Thursday while he has also spoken to other European leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who he talked to on Wednesday shortly after his election victory was confirmed. Trump has criticized the scale of the Joe Biden administration’s approval of military and financial support for Kyiv, while the soon-to-be president has vowed to end the war quickly, without specifying how. Ukraine’s…

The European Commission opened an investigation into the Chinese online shopping platform Temu on suspicion the site is doing too little to stop the sale of illegal products. “We want to ensure that Temu is complying with the Digital Services Act. Particularly in ensuring that products sold on their platform meet EU standards and do not harm consumers,” European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement on Thursday. Temu said it would cooperate with the EU. Temu faces scrutiny over counterfeit goods and ‘addictive design’ In May, the European Commission classified Temu as a “very large online platform” under the DSA. It requires the world’s largest tech firms to…