Author: DW

Proceedings opened before a criminal court in Paris on Monday of French screen star Gerard Depardieu, on trial for allegedly sexually assaulting two women during a 2021 film shoot. Further complaints and a possible second court case also loom for the 75-year-old, who is accused of using “violence, coercion, surprise or threat” in the alleged attacks. The trial was set to go ahead against Depardieu in absentia after his lawyers applied for a postponement on health grounds. “Gerard Depardieu is extremely affected and unfortunately his doctors have forbidden him from being present at the hearing, which is why he will…

Volkswagen is planning to shut at least three factories in Germany and lay off tens of thousands of staff.Its remaining plants in Germany are also set to be downsized, according to the head of the company’s works council Daniela Cavallo. Europe’s biggest carmaker has spent weeks negotiating with unions over its plans to revamp its business and cut costs, which have spiralled thanks to labour and energy prices.The German firm employs about 300,000 people in its home country and operates 10 plants, but has said a major restructuring is needed.Ms Cavallo told workers at VW’s biggest plant in Wolfsburg that…

The first thing you see when rolling into the German city of Wolfsburg in Lower Saxony by train are four giant smokestacks rising from a huge factory building that carries the VW logo in blue and white on the front of its reddish-brown brick walls. Welcome to Volkswagen city, home to one of the biggest car-making factories in the world.   Wolfsburg is one of the few German cities built during the first half of the 20th century as a planned city, meaning it was designed for a purpose and constructed on previously undeveloped land. Founded by Hitler’s Nazi regime on 1 July 1938, Wolfsburg was built to become…

Real Madrid on Sunday strongly condemned the racist behavior of its fans at the El Clasico football match, which saw Madrid thumped 4-0 by rival FC Barcelona on Saturday. Several Black Barcelona players, including 17-year-old phenom and Spanish national team player Lamine Yamal, faced racist insults during the game. Yamal, for instance, was targeted with abuse after becoming the youngest player ever to score a goal in El Clasico, the name for the match between Spain’s two biggest clubs. Real, Spain’s La Liga and its governing football body RFEF, as well as numerous government and police agencies, all condemned the situation, promising…

Polls closed in Bulgaria’s seventh general election in three years on Sunday evening, with preliminary results suggesting another win for former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov’s conservative party. Borisov’s GERB garnered 26.08% of the votes, according to preliminary results based on a partial vote count from the state election commission. This was followed by the reformist coalition We Continue the Change (PP) at 14.76% and the ultra-nationalist Vazrazhdane (Revival) party at around 13.8%. According to an exit poll showing similar results by Alpha Research, GERB was likely to get around 74 seats in the 240-seat parliament, while PP could get 42 seats, and Revival 36 seats respectively. Sunday’s vote was called after…

Presidential elections in Uruguay will see a leftist history teacher and a center-right veterinarian face off next month in a probable second round, according to projections based on exit polls. Yamandu Orsi of iconic ex-president Jose Mujica’s Frente Amplio and Alvaro Delgado of the ruling center-right coalition would compete to win in the November 24 election run-off, the projections showed. What do the exit polls suggest? Early exit polls suggested that 57-year-old Orsi is ahead of his conservative rival Delgado. Orsi bagged 44% of the vote whereas Delgado secured 27%, according to the exit polls conducted by polling firm Cifra. Ahead of…

A desert landscape features a leafless tree with a melting watch draped over it, signifying the fleeting nature of time. The body of a creature resembling a dead horse lies on the ground, creating an atmosphere that is both somber and bizarre. In his iconic 1931 painting “The Persistence of Memory,” Salvador Dali (1904-1989) created a dreamscape, rich in symbolism. The Spanish painter’s most famous work remains an icon of the surrealism art movement, still one of the most celebrated a century after it got off the ground. The movement got its start in Paris in the 1920s after the end of…

Bolivian ex-president Evo Morales says his car was shot at amid rising political tensions in the South American country.The politician posted a Facebook video appearing to show him sitting in the passenger seat with at least two bullet holes in the windscreen. In the video, which has not yet been independently verified, the driver appeared injured but was able to continue driving.In a radio interview after the incident, Mr Morales said two vehicles intercepted him on the road and fired upon his car, claiming a bullet passed “centimetres” from his head.It comes at a time of high tensions, with supporters…

A group of curious-looking people gather around Maxime Labrit in Paris at an event on reproductive rights, where he lays out colorful silicon rings. What looks amusing at first carries a deeper purpose. Labrit — a trained nurse — has set out to revolutionize male contraception, and the potential is huge.  More than 2 billion sperm-producing people live on our planet. Every second pregnancy is unintended. The burden often falls on women while men are left with few options to control their fertility.  But here’s the good news: There are many solutions out there, and some you can even buy today. The tricky part: It takes time to certify…

Over the European summer, the number of COVID-19 infections rose again, with test positivity for SARS-CoV-2 above 20%. Globally, test positivity was about 10%. The US also saw a rise in hospitalizations, apparently after a wave of COVID-19 infections in Singapore. Now, as we in the northern hemisphere move into autumn and winter, there is concern about two new variants. The first one is known as KP.3 and its sub-variant KP.3.1.1. The second is XEC, a “recombinant” variant which is related to KP.3. KP.3 is considered a global Variant of Concern (VOC) in the US by The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) because…