Author: DW

A mother has been sentenced to life in prison after she kidnapped and trafficked her own six-year-old daughter.Kelly Smith, whose full name is Racquel Chantel Smith, her boyfriend Jacquen Appollis and their friend Steveno Van Rhyn were convicted of the crimes in South Africa after Joshlin Smith disappeared from Saldanha, in Western Cape, last year. The youngster has not been seen since and remains missing following a nationwide police hunt. Image: Kelly Smith, the mother of Joshlin Smith, arrives for her sentencing hearing. Pic: Reuters Image: Jacquen Appollis and Steveno Van Rhyn. Pic: Reuters During the trial, one witness said…

Throughout his life, the Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o advocated for the African continent and his home country to free itself from Western cultural dominance. Baptized James Ngugi, he was born on January 5, 1938, in the central Kenyan region of Limuru. He died Wednesday at the age of 87. “It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of our dad, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, this Wednesday morning,” Wanjiku wa Ngugi wrote. “He lived a full life, fought a good fight,” she added. Ngugi studied at the renowned Makerere College (now Makerere University) in Kampala, Uganda, in the early…

A new study by researchers at the Tokyo University of Agriculture, Japan, identified patterns of behavior shown by cats towards humans they know, such as their owners, and strangers. Previous research suggested cats rely on their sensitive noses to identify other cats as friend or foe. But whether that same function applies to detecting humans was not fully understood. So, the researchers in Japan took 30 domestic cats and tested their responses to a range of special scents. The cats’ owners provided samples of their scents by swabbing their underarms, behind their ears and between their toes. These swabs were…

Andrew Tate faces 10 criminal charges in Britain, including rape, actual bodily harm, human trafficking and controlling prostitution for gain, the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Wednesday. The CPS said it had authorized the charges against the internet personality, which relate to three complainants, before an extradition warrant was issued in 2024 to bring him to the UK from Romania. What are the charges against Tristan Tate? Tristan Tate, Andrew’s brother, faces 11 charges, including rape, actual bodily harm and human trafficking. This is in relation to one complainant. “We can confirm that we have authorized charges against Andrew and Tristan Tate for offences…

When Nomine Fabian made her way to a beach on the coast of Föhr in the North Sea for her first sailing lesson of the year, she did so in a wheelchair. She was accompanied by Dirk Hückstädt, her coach, who runs a surfing and sailing school on the small German island. The two know each other well, as Hückstadt started teaching Nomine how to sail some six years ago, when she was only five. A first for the coach “Nomi was the first wheelchair user who came to us wanting to learn to sail,” Hückstädt told DW. “At the time,…

More than 17,000 people in Canada’s Manitoba province were being evacuated on Wednesday as wildfires raged. “The Manitoba government has declared a province-wide state of emergency due to the wildfire situation,” Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew told a news conference. “This is the largest evacuation Manitoba will have seen in most people’s living memory,” he added. Military assistance requested Kinew said he had asked Prime Minister Mark Carney to deploy the military to assist with both the evacuation process and the firefighting efforts to quell the fires. According to Kinew, military aircraft would be deployed “imminently” to help evacuate residents in endangered remote…

On May 22, the Danish parliament passed legislation raising the retirement age. The law, approved by 81 lawmakers with 21 voting against, sets the retirement age at 70 for all citizens born after December 31, 1970. Currently, the retirement age in Denmark is 67. By 2030, it will rise to 68, and by 2035 to 69. Last year, 47-year-old Social Democratic Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen stated she would be open to reviewing the system once the official retirement age reached 70.In Denmark, more elderly people are returning to workTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a…

Hamas’s Gaza chief Mohammed Sinwar has been “eliminated”, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said – but Israeli military sources say they are not yet able to confirm the death.Sinwar was one of Israel’s most wanted and the younger brother of the militant group’s former leader Yahya Sinwar, who was killed in a gun battle with Israeli troops last year. Speaking to parliament on Wednesday, Mr Netanyahu included Mohammed Sinwar in a list of Hamas leaders killed in Israeli strikes. Later, IDF sources aid they were not yet able to confirm the death.He had been the target of an Israeli…

When Donald Trump announced plans to impose a 100% tariff on any film “produced in foreign lands,” a globalized US film industry began to panic. Shares in major production companies like Netflix and Disney immediately fell due to an assumed rise in costs when productions can no longer profit from cheaper overseas locations. In recent decades, American films and TV series have benefited from generous tax incentives for shooting in Europe, Canada or Australia, making Hollywood locations comparatively expensive. At the same time, the film and content industry has become highly decentralized, with international co-productions able to share resources and access funding across multiple countries.Trump pushes levy on foreign-made…

The chance that average warming from 2025 to 2029 is to exceed the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) benchmark stands at 70%, the United Nations (UN) said. As a result, the Earth is expected to remain at historic levels of warming. This comes after the planet experienced the two hottest years ever recorded in 2023 and 2024, according to a report published by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the UN’s climate agency. WMO deputy secretary-general Ko Barrett said the past ten years have been the “the warmest on record,” adding a warning that no respite is expected. “This means…