Author: DW

Heads of state and government from the EU gathered at an “informal retreat” at the Alden Biesen Castle in eastern Belgium on Thursday, in lieu of a full monthly leaders’ summit in Brussels. The talks will focus on reviving and streamlining Europe’s economy, with the leaders also set to discuss ways to counter threats from China, Russia and the US.  French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz sought to emphasize their areas of agreement while talking to reporters on arrival. This follows extensive media coverage on differences between the heads of the EU’s two biggest economies as the bloc tries to remain competitive on the…

Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified from the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics on Thursday for refusing to wear a different helmet than the one that honors athletes killed in the war with Russia. International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Kirsty Coventry informed him of his disqualification in a meeting early Thursday at the sliding venue. Coventry was waiting for Heraskevych at the top of the track when he arrived at around 8:15 a.m., about 75 minutes before the start of the men’s skeleton race. They went into a private area and spoke briefly. Apparently, however, Coventry was unable to convince Heraskevych to agree to…

When Robert Fico returned to power and formed his fourth administration in late 2023, Alexandra Kusa knew her 14-year tenure as the head of the Slovak National Gallery was likely coming to an end. The Ministry of Culture had gone to the far-right Slovak National Party. A former TV presenter named Martina Simkovicova — who made her name spreading COVID disinformation on YouTube — was awarded the ministerial role. “There had been signs for quite some time, because other directors were being dismissed as well,” Alexandra Kusa told DW from Bratislava. “They were also signaling publicly what they didn’t like,”…

The benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) may come at a high cost for consumers. Surging demand for memory chips is driving up the price of smartphones and computers — including in Germany. “The AI boom, along with the massive investments in infrastructure and data centers that come with it, is having a noticeable impact on the memory chip market,” Wolfgang Weber, CEO of the German Electro and Digital Industry Association (ZVEI), told DW. “According to analyses by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) institute, prices for these chips rose by 50% last year,” Weber said. As a result, consumers may face…

Who is Vladyslav Heraskevych? In Pyeongchang in 2018, the Kyiv native became the first Ukrainian to compete in skeleton at the Winter Olympics. Heraskevych also competed in Beijing in 2022. After the third of four runs there, he held up a sign with the English inscription “No war in Ukraine” for the cameras at the finish line of the run. Thirteen days later, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Since then, Heraskevych has tirelessly used his sport to draw attention to the suffering of the people in Ukraine and to urge further strict sanctions against Russian sports. The skeleton…

The Berlin International Film Festival, or Berlinale, which runs this year from February 12-22, opens with an Afghan drama titled “No Good Men.” Award-winning director Shahrbanoo Sadat’s third feature is set on the eve of the 2021 Taliban offensive and tells the story of a TV newsroom camerawoman who is discouraged by the lack of interesting potential romantic partners in her country’s deeply patriarchal society.  Combining political urgency and romantic comedy, the film embodies two of the Berlinale’s distinctive facets: It is historically the most political of the three major European film fests, alongside Cannes and Venice, yet it’s also a crowd-pleaser — one of the world’s largest audience film festivals.…

Even the world’s established democracies are increasingly sliding into corruption. Transparency International’s 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), published on Tuesday, shows a troubling erosion of leadership in combating corruption in the West. The 31st edition of the CPI ranks more than 180 countries and territories on perceived levels of public sector corruption, showing declines for longstanding strong performers, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Sweden. The 2025 index found that the number of countries scoring above 80 — once a benchmark for clean governance — has shrunk dramatically from 12 a decade ago to just five this year. Although Denmark achieved…

Kyrylo Marsak may have escaped the war in his homeland but it inevitably follows him, even as far as the Milano Ice Skating Arena. The figure skate, one of 46 Ukrainian athletes at the 2026 Winter Olympics, told DW it is “difficult mentally” to cope with the devastation wrought on his home city of Kherson since the Russian invasion began in 2022. “What had meaning in my life, especially in Kherson, has been destroyed. The school where I went from first to eighth grade is destroyed to pieces and the skating rink is destroyed to pieces and my apartment is too — that…

Is Netflix really making us less intelligent? I don’t mean in the old school, “TV rots your brain” sense; that hours spent binging episodes of “Bridgerton” or “Squid Game” could be better spent dusting up on your Dostoevsky. I mean: is Netflix dumbing down the dialogue and storytelling in its films and TV shows to suit an audience it knows is barely paying attention? ‘Stranger Things’ and the rise of exposition-dump drama It’s a thought that came to me watching the final season of “Stranger Things.” The Duffer Brothers’ Netflix series began back in 2016 as a nostalgic tribute to all things 80s, particularly Stephen King novels…

Even the world’s established democracies are increasingly sliding into corruption. Transparency International’s 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), published on Tuesday, shows a troubling erosion of leadership in combating corruption in the West. The 31st edition of the CPI ranks more than 180 countries and territories on perceived levels of public sector corruption, showing declines for longstanding strong performers, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Sweden. The 2025 index found that the number of countries scoring above 80 — once a benchmark for clean governance — has shrunk dramatically from 12 a decade ago to just five this year. Although Denmark achieved…