Author: DW

Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is drawing up plans for a visit to China early next year that would include resuming a key financial services trade summit for the first time since 2019.Sky News has learnt that the Treasury is in detailed discussions with Chinese counterparts about holding a UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD) as early as January. The meeting would take place in Beijing and would be the first such gathering since June 2019, when Philip – now Lord – Hammond was chancellor.Money latest: Excessive? How UK maternity pay rates compare globallyDeteriorating political relations and the pandemic conspired to…

New Zealand has once again claimed the world record for the largest haka, beating the record held by France since 2014. Last Sunday, 6,531 people gathered at Eden Park stadium in Auckland to perform the traditional Maori dance. With this number of participants, they surpassed the previous record of 4,028 people. Although the organizers had hoped to reach 10,000 participants, the final number was enough to set a new world record. “It’s more than just numbers; it’s about honoring our cultural legacy on a global stage,” Nick Sautner, CEO of Eden Park, said. Brian Sobel, a Guinness World Records judge,…

German champion dressage rider Isabell Werth caused a stir in the equestrian world this weekend after taking part in a tournament on a horse owned by fellow German rider Lisa Müller and her husband Thomas Müller, the star Bayern Munich footballer. The Müllers purchased D’avie, a two-time youth world champion Hanoverian dressage horse, in 2020 for several million, but the Danish stallion has since failed to replicate his earlier success. After a couple of first-place finishes at events with comparatively weak fields, Müller and D’avie recently finished a disappointing sixth at the Grand Prix in Donaueschingen in southern Germany with…

On September 23, Donald Trump’s oldest son, Donald Jr., sat down to dinner with Serbian businesspeople in Belgrade to discuss investment opportunities. This was not a first for the Trump family: The former president’s contacts to Serbian entrepreneurs and government representatives go as far back as 2013. At the time, Ivica Dacic, then prime minister of Serbia, spoke publicly of Trump’s interest in a real estate project. The object in question was the former headquarters of the Yugoslav People’s Army, which was seriously damaged in the NATO bombardment of 1999. But the negotiations came to nothing. Billion-dollar contract Then, in…

Mark Rutte announced in July 2023 that he was resigning as prime minister of the Netherlands and “retiring from politics” after his government coalition collapsed over differences in migration policy.  By October of that year, however, Rutte had seemingly forgotten all about his vow to leave politics, signalling his interest in succeeding NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who had announced he would finally leave the post in September 2024 after a decade at the helm of the alliance. For months, Rutte ran a discreet one-man campaign to win over NATO leaders, most of whom he already knew from more than 13 years as Dutch…

Even though incumbent state premier Dietmar Woidke of the Social Democrats won the Brandenburg elections by a small margin, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) won just shy of 29.2% of the votes. That made the far-right party the second-strongest in the Brandenburgstate assembly behind the Social Democrats (SPD), who won 30.9%.  The AfD, which Germany’s constitutional court has classified as a “suspected far-right extremist organization,” gained 5.7 percentage points more than in the elections five years ago. The party scored a similarly outstanding result two weeks ago in the two eastern states of Thuringia and Saxony, where it garnered 32.8% and 30.6%, respectively. Many economists and business…

Mount Everest has grown by around 15 to 50 metres in the last 89,000 years, and it’s increasing every year. Now, scientists say that’s because the mountain’s water system captured a river.When the Arun River joined with another nearby river, the new path created the deep Arun Gorge near Everest. Now, the river network about 46 miles from the mountain is carving away at the substantial gorge, causing the nearby mountain to rise up by as much as two millimetres a year.”Mount Everest is a remarkable mountain of myth and legend and it’s still growing,” said PhD student Adam Smith,…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s novella “The Sorrows of Young Werther” was a worldwide breakthrough for the 25-year-old when it was published 250 years ago.  It was rumored that the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte read the novel seven times and spoke of nothing else when he finally met Goethe.  The dark take on doomed love went somewhat viral for its time, striking a chord with a whole generation of young people. Young men struck by Werther ‘fever’ Werther is the novel’s protagonist — he is only referred to by his surname — who falls in love with Lotte, who is engaged. …

For the last two years, the possibility of Formula 1 returning to Africa has looked more and more likely. With public and private support from star driver Lewis Hamilton and a growing fan base on the continent, the continued omission of Africa from motorsport’s premium product looks increasingly unsustainable. After attempts to bring the sport back to the last location of a race in Africa –  the Kyalami racetrack in Johannesburg, South Africa –  failed, the wait continues. However, a recent meeting between South African Minister of Sports and Recreation Gayton McKenzie and Formula 1 Chief Executive Stefano Domenicali has reignited the belief that Africa will again have a…

Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) has scored a historic victory, winning the country’s parliamentary election for the first time. According to the preliminary official results, the FPÖ garnered 29.2% of votes, followed by Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s center-right conservative ÖVP with 26.48%. This confirmed earlier predictions by Institut Foresight which put the FPÖ at over 29% of the vote, a slightly better result than expected in the surveys done ahead of the Sunday polls. The FPÖ now has the most seats in the new Austrian parliament. Turnout stood at 74.9%, slightly down from the previous election in 2019. FPÖ ready to negotiate with other parties On Sunday evening,…