Author: DW

Volkswagen’s announcement on Monday (September 2) that it is considering closing factories in Germany is unprecedented in the German automaker’s 87-year history. Such plant closures were considered off the table for the Wolfsburg-based company. To make matters even worse for the 680,000 VW employees worldwide, the management also feels forced to end its job security program which has been in place since 1994 and prevents job cuts until 2029. Experts are already talking about a significant paradigm shift at Germany’s largest industrial employer, which due to its shareholder structure has always been an enterprise controlled by the state and the Porsche…

English football clubs are being warned they will face “enormous opposition” if they try to introduce dynamic pricing for match tickets – after two top sides in Spain confirmed they were adopting the controversial practice.Valencia and Celta Vigo are believed to be the only European clubs to have embraced the system for this season’s matches. Although there are no suggestions dynamic pricing will be introduced into the English game, there has been growing concern clubs are vastly hiking prices, depending on the level of opposition.It also comes after the huge controversy surrounding the sale of tickets for next year’s reunion…

Nara Smith sports a sequined red evening dress as she carefully prepares a kimchi dinner for her three children and husband. The 23-year-old’s hair is perfectly styled, her makeup flawless — just as it always is in her social media videos on TikTok or Instagram. Similarly glamorous outfits are worn when Smith is crafting homemade versions of everything from Coca-Cola to granola and Nutella. An American blogger of South African and German descent, Smith is part of the growing “tradwife” trend — short for traditional wife — on TikTok where traditional gender roles are promoted, with a lot of cooking and childcare content. She already…

Cybercrime costs governments and businesses trillions of dollars every year. But it costs some more than others. In 2023, cybercrime in the Middle East cost just over $8 million (€7.2 million) per incident, according to research funded by IBM that looked into data breaches in 16 countries. That puts Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — where the IBM study focussed — second in the world when it comes to this kind of financial damage. Additionally the costs of cybercrime in the UAE and Saudi Arabia has been going up for years now. In 2018, the same annual study…

The United States has charged Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and other militants over last year’s October 7 terrorist attack in Israel. Six individuals were charged with “conspiracy to provide material support for acts of terrorism resulting in death,” conspiracy to murder US nationals, and five other counts. The Department of Justice filed the criminal complaint at a federal court in New York City, which was unsealed on Tuesday. “The charges unsealed today are just one part of our effort to target every aspect of Hamas’ operations,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “These actions will not be our last.” Who was…

German Transport Minister Volker Wissing said on Tuesday in Berlin that national state-owned rail company Deutsche Bahn (DB) must improve punctuality, particularly for long-distance services, and also to find savings in areas like administration and management while reducing losses or improving profitability. He said that it was up to company executives to come up with and execute a precise plan, to be completed by 2027, but that he wanted quarterly progress reports showing whether targets were being met.  Wissing is not likely to receive very many of these reports himself given that Germany’s next federal elections are scheduled for September…

At least 47 people have been killed in a Russian strike in a central region of Ukraine, according to the country’s first lady Olena ZelenskaShe said in a post to X that 206 had also been wounded after two Russian ballistic missiles struck an educational facility and nearby hospital in the Poltava region. “This is a stunning tragedy for all of Ukraine,” she wrote.”It is already known about 47 dead and 206 wounded. Russia is taking away the most valuable thing from us – life. We will never forget this. Eternal memory.”Earlier, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at least 41…

In late summer 2024, in the quiet town of Weikersheim, in south-central Germany, nearly 200 musicians ages 17 to 27 came together to make music together. The participants came from 41 different countries and included the entire National Youth Orchestra of Germany and the World Youth Choir. Weikesheim happens to be the home of the German section of Jeunesses Musicales international, a global non-governmental organization founded in 1945 that brings together young people from around the world to make music. The guiding hope is that people who make music together won’t fight wars with each other. The international summit of…

The infected blood scandal has been described as the worst treatment disaster in the history of the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). In total, almost 30,000 people in the UK contracted HIV or hepatitis after receiving blood transfusions contaminated with the viruses back in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. More than 3,000 people died, and more continue to die every week. A governmental inquiry published in May 2024 found evidence of large-scale cover-ups by health workers and ministers, which ignored, downplayed, or denied the risks and damages caused by contaminated blood donations. “It’s not just the impact of the infection itself, the fallout…

Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann announced on Monday that Bayern Munich’s veteran defender, Joshua Kimmich, would be the national team’s new captain – starting with Saturday’s Nations League match against Hungary in Düsseldorf. Germany are also to face the Netherlands in Amsterdam on Tuesday, in the second match of the new Nations League campaign. In addition to Kimmich, Nagelsmann named Antonio Rüdiger and Kai Havertz as alternate captains. “Josh was one of the three captains at the European Championship, so it’s logical that if the others aren’t there, it’s logical that he’s the (leading) candidate,” the Germany coach told a press…