Author: DW

Has the fragile US-Iran ceasefire collapsed? The Iran war has reignited after Tehran struck at least three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, according to US and maritime officials. The attacks, which targeted a Saudi oil tanker and a Qatari liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier, prompted the United States to revoke the temporary sanctions waiver on Iranian oil exports. This major concession in the memorandum of understanding (MOU) agreed by the US and Iran last month allowed Tehran to restart oil exports after its tankers were halted by a US Navy blockade. In further retaliation, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said Wednesday it had struck more…

Ukrainian Sports Minister Matviy Bidnyi says he is “outraged” at the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) decision to lift restrictions on Russian athletes and he has called on IOC President Kirsty Coventry to visit Ukraine. “Together with all Ukrainians and the entire clean sports community worldwide, I am profoundly outraged. This decision is deeply unfair to every athlete who plays by the rules, and it is a total disrespect to the memory of hundreds of Ukrainian athletes killed by Russia,” Bidnyi wrote in response to a DW query. Bidnyi added that Coventry should come to Ukraine in order to “see the reality with…

The river reeked so badly, it left Londoners gasping for air. Those who could afford to fled the city. Those left behind soaked their curtains in lime chloride to keep the stench at bay and pressed handkerchiefs over their noses whenever they ventured outside. “Whoso once inhales the stink can never forget it, and may count himself lucky if he live to remember it,” the local press wrote. It was 1858. For weeks, temperatures hovered above 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit). Not a drop of rain fell to cool the city — or to wash away the filth choking the River…

When Bernd Wagner walks through his new company’s headquarters, he can barely contain his enthusiasm. He starts rattling off figures like “seven times as much steel as was used to build the Eiffel Tower” or “cables stretching all the way to Naples.” Wagner is responsible for cloud business and sales at Schwarz Digits. All that steel and cabling has gone into the new head office, which will officially open on July 21, 2026. ‘We are here to say,’ says Bernd Wagner, head of sales and cloud business at Schwarz DigitsImage: Nicolas Martin/DW The campus, designed for 3,500 employees and complete with…

“Perhaps they wanted to keep the world champions in the competition. Perhaps they wanted Messi to stay in the race,” fumed Egypt’s national team coach, Hossam Hassan, on BeIN Sports after his team’s 3–2 round-of-16 defeat to Argentina on Tuesday. “This match was rigged, and the whole world saw it,” he said. Late in the second half, the Egyptians had led 2–0 thanks to goals from Yasser Ibrahim (15th minute) and Mostafa Ziko (67). Then, the defending champions launched a comeback, turning the match on its head. Cristian Romero (79), Lionel Messi (83), and Enzo Fernandez (90+2) scored to secure the…

“I always thought of my grandfather as a left-wing unionist, and now he’s turned up in the NSDAP database,” Hanno Dannenfeldt told DW. It was always said in the family that his paternal grandfather had clean hands. Now that the National Archives of the United States has published its collection of National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) membership cards, Dannenfeldt is one of countless Germans eager to find out whether their relatives were members of the party that ruled Germany during the Nazi era from 1933 to 1945. This has not been an easy task: The site is often inaccessible…

German companies are continuing to move abroad — and that applies to businesses of every size. According to press reports, Gardena, the Ulm-based garden tools specialist, plans to cut 250 jobs in Germanyand partially relocate operations to the Czech Republic. That amounts to a reduction of 10% of its domestic workforce. Major global players such as BASF are also continuing to invest abroad. Earlier this year, it become known that the chemical company intends to relocate service positions to India, with many jobs at its Berlin site coming under particular pressure. Relocations and job losses Last year, the situation was described in…

In mid-June, the German Weather Service (DWD) described the record-breaking heat in Germany and Europe as “a heat wave for the history books.” The 40-degree-Celsius mark (104 degrees Fahrenheit) was surpassed at  46 weather stations in 11 German states, the highest temperatures ever in the month of June. Eleven hot days and nights heated up many people’s homes so much that cooling off and getting a good night’s sleep were out of the question. Sustained lack of rest can have serious health consequences and can even be fatal. Extreme heat waves appear to be getting more common across Europe and elsewhere. On…

Athletes who were subjected to doping by the East German state have “no suitable means for support, even though those affected still urgently need help,” a new report said on Wednesday.   The findings were presented by Evelyn Zupke, the German government’s commissioner for victims of the socialist dictatorship at Hohenschönhausen Memorial, a former detention center of the Stasi, East Germany’s secret police. According to the report, forced doping constituted “a flagrant abuse of political power,” that reduced athletes “to mere objects of state action, thereby severely violating their human dignity.” Zupke called for changes to current legislation to ensure victims can access…

Albanian prime minister Edi Rama defended the decision to financially support a concert by controversial US rapper Kanye West. In a public Facebook post on Wednesday, Rama sought to address public anger over the event by arguing that a €4 million ($4.56 million) investment in the concert was good for the country. “We allocated €4 million at the last minute to avoid embarrassing Albania in the eyes of ‌nearly 25,000 foreign visitors from 80 countries who had already ‌purchased tickets to see Kanye West, while many others were wary that the concert might be cancelled,” Rama said on Facebook. Albania is…