Author: DW

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…

After the first Israeli attack on the southern suburbs of Beirut about a month ago, Mansour Omar thought he should try and find somewhere else to stay. “I’ve been worried ever since that attack because I was living close to where the first raids took place,” says Omar, a Syrian refugee who’s been living in the Lebanese capital for nine years, after he was driven out of his home by civil war. “This week, after the attacks started, I searched in the suburbs.” But the rents being asked were “terrifying,” he says. “It’s exploitation.” So his family didn’t move. Then this week,…

The trial in a Munich regional court over a bizarre incident ended with former Germany goalkeeper Jens Lehman accepting his conviction on two counts of damage to property and attempted fraud in return for a reduced fine. Originally fined €420,000 ($470,000) Lehmann saw this reduced to €135,000 on appeal.  Prosecutors had accused Lehmann of sawing off a roof beam in his neighbor’s garage with a chainsaw in July 2022 and said it was part of a long-standing dispute because the building blocked the previously unobstructed view from Lehmann’s property of Lake Starnberg southwest of Munich. Part of the evidence submitted was…