Author: DW

She went her own way and she made it! “Brat,” the wildly popular studio album by British artist Charli XCX, was declared by Collins Dictionary as its top word of 2024. More than a hugely successful album, the term took a new cultural meaning this year, with fans saying this summer was about living life exactly the way they are and the way they want to live. The dictionary characterizes “brat” as someone having a “confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude.” Charlie XCX once said in a TikTok interview that a “brat” is someone who is “honest, blunt, and a little bit volatile.” The album, which debuted…

Last month Saudi Arabia hosted boxing’s heavyweight title fight. This month the best male tennis players arrived for the sport’s biggest money tournaments. But it is in December that, despite misgivings in the women’s game, the sport’s emerging superpower will land the biggest one of the lot: the football World Cup. Football’s global governing body, FIFA, are expected to announce the middle eastern kingdom as the host for the 2034 tournament on December 11, with no other bids being considered at this point. But the decision to award the tournament to a country with a poor human rights record has angered advocacy groups.…

A shootout between rival drug gangs left five teens injured with gunshot wounds and sparked a violent melee involving hundreds of participants late Thursday in the western French city of Poitiers. French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau told broadcaster BFM TV on Friday that drug-violence in France had reached a “tipping point.” Retailleau cited police reports that between 400 and 600 people carrying “all manner of weapons” had been involved in the fight. “It started off with a shooting at a restaurant. It ended up with a clash between rival gangs that involved several hundred people,” he said. Police used teargas, reinforcements…

A federal jury on Friday convicted a former Kentucky police officer of using excessive force on Breonna Taylor during a botched drug raid that left her dead. The jury also acquitted Brett Hankison of a second count that accused him of violating the civil rights of Taylor’s neighbors.  Hankinson could face up to life in prison.  Breonna Taylor movementTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video What happened the night when Breonna Taylor was killed? On March 13, 2020, officers breached the door of Taylor’s apartment with their guns drawn to execute a search warrant.…

November 1 marks the seventh week of a crippling strike of 33,000 factory workers at all Boeing production lines outside non-unionized North Carolina. Workers are demanding a 40% pay rise, arguing they have not seen wage increases for years. The US planemaker improved the conditions in its latest offer on Thursday, hoping to put an end to the painful strike that has paralyzed its two main factories.  News agency AFP reports that the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 — the union which represents the workers on strike — endorsed the new offer and set a vote for Monday. The offer includes a 38% wage increase…

Botswana is set for its first change of governing party in 58 years after president Mokgweetsi Masisi conceded defeat in the general election.Mr Masisi’s Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), which had held power in the southern African country since independence from Britain in 1966, was in fourth place in the parliamentary elections, after winning three of the 61 seats available. He conceded defeat on Friday morning, before final results were announced, signalling a victory for the opposition Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), which had taken 25 seats to that point, needing 31 seats to clinch a majority. Image: Umbrella for Democratic…

The pharaohs of ancient Egypt were embalmed, as were several other rulers in later centuries. This includes France’s Louis XIV, also known as Louis the Great or the Sun King, and the communist leader Lenin, whose preserved body has been on public display since shortly after his death in 1924. The message is clear: The body’s time is over but the spirit lives on.  Such beliefs are anchored in many cultures. Here are some of the most unique ceremonies surrounding death.  Día de Muertos: Day of the Dead in Mexico
 Grinning skeletons dance in the streets, bakeries sell “pan de muerto,” or “bread of the…

A brutal civil war raging in Sudan since April 2023 has led to untold suffering. The conflict is between between two rival military factions, the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces Militia. According to the International Rescue Committee, at least 15,000 people have died with some estimates going as far as 150,000. As many as 25 million, half of the country’s entire population, are said to be in need of humanitarian aid, and 12 million people have been displaced, Some of Sudan’s 12,000,000 internally-displaced people at an IDP camp in South Kordofan stateImage: Thomas Mukoya/REUTERS In such times of death, devastation,…

North Korea on Thursday launched an intercontinental ballistic missile at the order of leader Kim Jong Un, state media KCNA said, adding that its flight records exceeded previous tests.  The agency reported that Kim was present at the site. “The test-fire is an appropriate military action that fully meets the purpose of informing the rivals… of our counteraction will,” Kim said at the launch, the official Korean Central News Agency reported. The launch came a day after South Korea’s military intelligence agency told lawmakers that North Korea has likely completed preparations for its seventh nuclear test. The intelligence said the North was close…

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier asked for forgiveness on Thursday during a visit to a village that was razed by Nazi troops during their occupation of Greece in World War II. Steinmeier is the first German head of state to visit the village of Kandanos on the island of Crete. “I ask forgiveness from you, the survivors and descendants, for the grave crimes that the Germans committed here,” he said. Kandanos was razed on June 3, 1941, as a reprisal against the Greek resistance for the death of 25 German paratroopers and troops. It came days after Nazi troops captured the…