Author: DW

A flurry of announcements this week is reshaping efforts by the United States and the European Union to loosen China’s grip on rare earth minerals, the building blocks of next-generation technology. US President Donald Trump on Monday unveiled Project Vault, a plan to build a US strategic stockpile of critical minerals, expand domestic rare-earth processing capacity and secure long‑term supply deals with manufacturers. In another development, the EU on Tuesday set out plans for a rare-earth alliance with US to bolster its own resilience. Meanwhile, US Vice President JD Vance gave a keynote speech to delegates from key mineral‑producing countries on Wednesday, seeking to secure a rare-earth trading bloc to…

There’s a body of research going back at least 40 years, with scientists asking whether hormonal shifts in women influence strength, fatigue and recovery.  Over time, that research has filtered into gyms and social media, often simplified into rules like “take it easy during your period” or “push hard mid-cycle.” The menstrual cycle is a monthly rhythm of hormones. During the month, two key hormones, estrogen and progesterone, rise and fall, shaping how many women feel, move and recover. Fitness professionals often divide the cycle into four stages:  Week one: during menstruation, also known as the bleeding phase or “period”…

Kazakhstan will replace Saudi Arabia as the host the 2029 Asian Winter Games. The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) on Thursday said Kazakhstan’s largest city Almaty would be the new venue for the event. The 2029 Asian Winter Games had originally been planned to be held in Neom, a planned city and mega-project on the Red Sea in northwestern Saudi Arabia. Announcing the decision on the sidelines of the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, OCA President Sheikh Joaan bin Hamas Al Thani thanked Kazakhstan for its commitment to and development of winter sports. “Almaty is a city with deep connections to…

A German lesson is starting in a public-school classroom in the Philippines, and it opens with a greeting: “Guten Morgen,” the teacher says. Students respond carefully, shaping unfamiliar sounds before moving on to short dialogues about directions, food, family and eventually, culture. German has a reputation of being a difficult language to learn, but this also makes it a valuable assetImage: Stanley Gajete/DW In a Philippine public school, that routine still feels unusual. German, after all, is more commonly associated with international schools or private language centers. But the language has quietly taken root in selected secondary schools due to a program…

Young, tech-savvy, and future-focused — Philipe Andrade, 23, and Carlos Alberto Andrade, 26, embody a new generation of Brazil’s automotive elite. They are the heirs to the Brazilian auto group CAOA. Founded in 1979 by their father, Carlos Alberto de Oliveira Andrade, CAOA stands for his name and a long tradition of manufacturing, importing, and selling vehicles in Brazil. The company operates its own assembly plant in Anapolis, producing Hyundai and Chery models, and runs a vast network of dealerships for Asian carmakers Hyundai, Subaru, and Chery.  Currently, the two Andrade brothers are setting the course for the future of the…

A major investor in a new American football league in Europe believes the time is right for a sustainable pan-European competition, despite a host of previous failures. David Gandler, who co-founded the sports streaming service Fubo, said he has personally invested “seven figures” in the European Football Alliance (EFA). The new league is planning to launch in May with seven teams, while a further two — in London, also backed by Gandler, and in Milan — are scheduled to join in 2027. “There’s pent-up demand,” Gandler told DW. “The only thing really missing around American football is structure. So to capture…

The Louvre has announced plans to restore the crown of Empress Eugenie, which abandoned by thieves during their gateway after a brazen heist in the Paris museum last year. Thieves made off with €88 million euros ($104 million) in jewels in October but dropped the 170-year-old crown as they escaped. The crown was left “badly deformed,” the Louvre said on Thursday, but it was nevertheless “nearly intact” and could be restored “without the need for reconstruction.”The crown was abandoned by thieves as they fled the crime scene with eight other pieces of the French crown jewelsImage: Thomas Clot/MUSEE DU LOUVRE/AFP…

As global heating worsens, interest in solar engineering is rising, including from private companies and investors. But the technique remains controversial and lacks regulation. The planet is heating up faster than expected. Greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise at record rates, leaving the world off track to limit warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. The latest data shows 2025 was the third hottest year on record. That growing gap between climate targets and reality is fueling renewed interest in geoengineering — interventions that intentionally alter the Earth’s climate system. Among them is solar geoengineering, which aims…

Fossils uncovered in Spain could lead to new clues about how dinosaurs evolved, according to a study published on Sunday in the science journal Papers in Paleontology. Fidel Torcida Fernandez-Baldor from the Dinosaur Museum of Salas de los Infantes in northern Spain discovered the fossils, which together represent at least five individual dinosaurs. The musuem focuses on Cretaceous-era fossils. “From the beginning, we knew these bones were exceptional because of their minute size. It is equally impressive how the study of this animal overturns global ideas on ornithopod dinosaur evolution,” he said in a press release from the Vrije Universiteit in…

The 2026 Winter Olympics sports program opened with the first curling matches scheduled in Italy’s Cortina on Wednesday night, two days before the official opening ceremony. Several hundred spectators watched as eight teams unpacked their equipment in the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium. The matches had barely begun when a brief power outage blacked out the scoreboards for the matchups between Sweden and South Korea, Great Britain and Norway, Canada and the Czech Republic, and Estonia and Switzerland.Curling players slide granite stones toward a circular target called the ‘house’ in an attempt to get closer to the center, or ‘button,’ than their…