Author: DW

The Unity Monument in Berlin is to be a walkable shell. The idea is that people can tread on it, and the monument  tips from one side to the other if enough people gather in one direction — which is why the project became popularly known as the “Einheitswippe,” or “unity seesaw.” The monument was planned as a commemorative symbol of the peaceful protests of East Germany’s citizens that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and later to German reunification. The German Bundestag voted to have such as monument erected 17 years ago. But 35 years after Germany’s reunification, the construction of the walkable shell of the “Citizens on…

It was sometime during the COVID-19 pandemic when Wegovy and Ozempic hit mainstream awareness. Since then, they have taken the weight loss industry by storm. It’s worth noting from the start that while both are based on the same drug or active ingredient — semaglutide — as products, Wegovy and Ozempic were originally intended for different uses. Ozempic was first approved in 2017 by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an injectable drug to help “lower blood sugar levels in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus, in addition to diet and exercise.”  Wegovy was approved the same year to help adults and children aged 12 years and older, who…

With the help of a portable batting net and a set of heavy-duty plywood planks, a group of young Afghans in Hamburg turn the gravel track that surrounds a school football field into a serviceable place to play cricket. It’s hardly Lords, but it’ll do. As residents of a local refugee accommodation center, these cricket enthusiasts have limited means to pursue their passion. Even though their social workers didn’t know what cricket was, without their help, Noor Ahmad Wahidi and his friends wouldn’t have had a chance. Wahidi is captain of the Neuland Lions, Hamburg’s newest cricket team. It is comprised of Afghan residents…

Could well-intentioned efforts to combat child sexual abuse pave the way for unprecedented surveillance in the European Union?   That is the question at the heart of a heated debate over a draft law that could be adopted during a meeting of EU ministers on October 10.   The law would require services such as WhatsApp, iMessage or Signal to automatically scan messages sent in the EU for potential child sexual abuse material and flag suspicious content to authorities.  Using AI to uncover cyber groomersTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Supporters…

US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday visited communities ravaged by Hurricane Helene. The Biden administration has deployed 1,000 soldiers to clean up after Helene and has pledged to cover the bill to remove debris in some states. The storm killed more than 180 people across six states and has become an issue in the presidential election campaign. Biden tours destruction in the Carolinas Biden arrived in South Carolina and was briefed on the cleanup effort. He then flew in a helicopter over the flood-hit city of Asheville in North Carolina. “What I saw was heartbreaking,”…

The rapid escalation of tensions between Iran and Israel, heightened when Teheran fired a barrage of at least 180 missiles into Israel on October 1, saw global oil prices surge by about 5% — the most in a year. Brent crude rose again the next day to trade above $75 (€67) a barrel, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retaliate, further increasing the risk of tit-for-tat escalation in a region that is responsible for a third of the world’s oil supply. A major escalation by Iran risks bringing the United States into the conflict, data provider Capital Economics wrote in a note to investorson the day…

Children’s toys are still scattered around, half buried in the rubble. A wedding picture hanging on the wall shows a bride bending over backwards in her groom’s arms. Baby photographs still hang on the stone wall.”We’ve lost everything,” Mohammad tells us. “This is collective punishment.” Image: Mohammad in the remains of the damaged building Israel-Lebanon latest: Follow live updatesThirty-two people lived in this shattered block. We can still make it up the stairs but several floors seem to have collapsed on each other and the roof is dangerously buckled.Five families lived in this block altogether. The missile did not even…

This year, the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany turns 75. Known as the Basic Law, it enshrines rights such as human dignity, equality, and freedom of opinion. But democracy is not a one-way street; it thrives on cooperation in politics as well as in society, art and music. “Our experience is that culture and music offer a kind of space for many people who would argue hopelessly when it comes to other topics,” artistic director Steven Walter said in a debate on the future of democracy and responsibility in culture. It is often emphasized that music unites people,…

If you were to recreate the moon on Earth, you would need three essential ingredients: a sandy material with a chemical composition like regolith (lunar soil) special lighting to mimic the angle of the sun a moon gravity simulator (the moon’s gravity is one-sixth of the Earth’s gravity) And a huge container to house it all, like a massive metal hangar. When the German Space Agency (DLR) and European Space Agency (ESA) unveiled their version of the moon —  the LUNA Analog Facility — in late September 2024, they got two-thirds of the way to representing the moon’s strange landscape. One crucial element was missing. Pitch darkness was broken by a…

As Mexico’s first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, begins her term in office on October 1, dark clouds are looming on the northern horizon of the Central American country. US Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump has again plunged Mexico’s economic model of low-cost production for the US market into doubt by calling on companies there to immediately relocate their operations to the United States or face higher tariffs. Speaking to party members at the Republican National Convention in July, he warned Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers in Mexico that their EVs would become unaffordable due to new duties of 100% he was planning to impose on…