Author: DW

The meeting between China’s minister of commerce, Wang Wentao, and EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis in Brussels last week (September 19) came after the EU announced plans in July to levy import duties of up to 36% on some Chinese electric-vehicle (EV) imports, on top of the EU’s standard 10% import duty on cars. Following an anti-subsidy investigation started by Brussels last year, the EU Commission said China’s vast state subsidies create an unfair advantage for Chinese automakers and violate the principle of a level playing field for all competitors in the EV market.  Beijing has rejected the findings of the EU probe. After speaking to businesses on…

Multiple people have died after a single-engine plane crashed near a monument in honour of the pioneering US flyers, the Wright brothers.The aircraft went down at around 5pm on Saturday, local time, at the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Outer Banks, North Carolina. The US National Park Service, quoting eyewitnesses, said the plane was trying to land at the First Flight Airport but crashed.The plane caught fire after the crash, the service said, before being extinguished by the Kill Devil Hills Fire Department and other local fire departments.The airport is closed until further notice, with the memorial closed on Sunday.…

What actually happened? Euro 2024 hosts Germany and Spain are tied 1-1 in extra time of their quarterfinal in Stuttgart. The match is in the 106th minute when German attacker Jamala Musiala takes a shot that gets blocked by Spanish defender Marc Cucurella’s hand. English referee Anthony Taylor lets play continue and video assistant referee Stuart Attwell fails to intervene. In the 119th minute, Mikel Merino scores with a header to make it 2-1 for Spain. Germany are knocked out of the competition and Spain go on to win the European Championship. What was the reaction at the time? “I don’t want to complain,…

Polling was underway in Austria on Sunday in a general election that could see the far-right gain a narrow but historic victory over the governing conservatives. Voting began at 7 a.m. local time (0500 GMT), with over 6.3 million people of Austria’s 9 million residents eligible to vote. Immigration concerns and an economic downturn have dominated the electoral landscape in the Alpine EU nation. The growing popularity of the FPÖ The far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) has been in government several times but it has never topped a national vote. That could change this time, though, with pre-election polls showing the anti-immigrant party could…

What is the latest in the Jannik Sinner case? On September 28, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced that it would be appealing the decision of an independent tribunal in August. The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) had cleared Jannik Sinner of any wrongdoing in August despite the Italian having twice tested positive for low levels of a metabolite of clostebol, a banned substance, during a tournament in March. WADA has now taken up the case with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), calling for a ban of “between one and two years” and stating that the ITIA decision was “not correct under the…

The singing of a song with a Nazi past at a funeral in Vienna, Austria, on Friday has sparked outrage, as Austria braces for parliamentary elections where the far-right is projected to make big gains. Three well-known members of the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) attended the funeral where “Wenn alle untreu werden” (When all become unfaithful) was sung. Video appears to show FPÖ politicians Austrian daily Der Standard reported on Saturday that FPÖ politicians, Martin Graf, Harald Stefan and Norbert Nemeth were at the funeral of a former FPÖ politician. It was unclear whether they had sung along to the song, which…

Why has UniCredit bought a stake in Commerzbank? UniCredit surprised markets two weeks ago by revealing it had acquired a 9% stake in Commerzbank for about €700 million ($771.3 million) after outbidding other hopefuls for a part of the German government’s stake in the lender.  On Monday, Italy’s second-biggest lender caught financial experts off guard again when it announced it had taken another 11.5% through financial instruments, bringing its total ownership to around 21%. In addition, UniCredit said it has requested European Central Bank (ECB) permission to raise its stake to 29.9% — just short of the 30% threshold that would require it to make a public offer for the entire bank.…

Former Arsenal star Jens Lehmann has been fined €135,000 (£112,000) for damaging his neighbour’s garage with a chainsaw.The ex-goalkeeper was a member of the north London side’s ‘Invincibles’ team that went the entire 2003/04 season unbeaten. The controversial former star got in trouble in his hometown of Starnberg, in the south of Germany. Image: Jens Lehmann pictured in 2021 during a Champions League quarter-final tie. Pic: Reuters Lehmann was accused by the public prosecutor of sawing off a roof beam in his neighbour’s garage.He was initially fined €420,000 (£350,000) over the incident, which took place in July 2022. However, this…

English actress Maggie Smith, considered one of the most prominent figures in British cinema, has passed away at the age of 89 in hospital in London, her sons announced. “An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end,” the statement said. Over her extensive career, Smith appeared in more than 50 films and showcased her versatility in a wide range of roles. Her greatest recognition as an actress came in 1969 when she won the Oscar for her performance in “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.” She would win the award again in 1978 for her supporting role in…

CERN’s 70th anniversary celebrations in 2024 may be its biggest achievement since scientists there detected the “elusive” Higgs boson particle in 2012. Over a decade later, CERN scientists are still smashing subatomic particles at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) but have not reported any comparable discoveries since the Higgs boson. But they do hope to make new, major discoveries with a much larger particle collider, which, if built, will be three-times the size of the LHC.  The proposed Future Circular Collider (FCC) would be more than 90 km long.  It would aim to serve as a so-called Higgs factory, producing Higgs boson particles for…