Author: DW

Former British marathon runner Paula Radcliffe has said she is “mortified” that she wished “best of luck” to a convicted rapist competing at the Olympics.Dutch beach volleyball player Steven Van de Velde was convicted in 2016 of raping a 12-year-old girl in England two years earlier. He was 19 years old at the time of the attack. He served a year of his four-year sentence, after being transferred to a Dutch prison.Van de Velde, now 29, was controversially selected to represent the Netherlands in the Paris Games, which start on Friday. Image: Steven van de Velde. Pic: Rex Features The…

Tropical storm seasons have only been getting worse. When Typhoon Gaemi passed over Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan and China in late July 2024, it was described as one of the strongest in almost a decade. It hit Taiwan with gusts of up to 227 kph (141 mph) and its cloud-bands spanned most of the Western Pacific Ocean. A cargo sank in the storm and many people died. Over the Atlantic, when Hurricane Beryl struck Jamaica in May 2024, it was described as an “explosive start” to the year’s storm season. At the United Nations’ weather and climate agency (WMO), scientists…

Protesters recently sprayed unsuspecting tourists with water guns in Barcelona during anti-tourism demonstrations in Spain. However, it wasn’t the only Spanish destination to boycott mass tourism. Recently, protests have taken place on the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands and in Andalusia, each attracting thousands of demonstrators. In 2023, Spain saw more than 85 million tourists, making the country the world’s second most popular tourist destination after France. However, Spain is not alone in its resentment towards mass tourism — tourist hot spots in Europe, including Italy and Greece, are also considering ways to limit the number of visitors. Locals protest mass tourism in SpainTo view…

Skateboarder Zheng Haohao from China (11), Indian swimmer Dhinidhi Desinghu (14) and two Americans, Hezly Rivera (16) and Quincy Wilson (16), are just some of the young athletes competing at the Olympic Games in Paris. While this has caused excitement around the future of some sports, there are also questions about what effect this level of elite competition has on children. “Adolescence is a highly volatile period, physically, physiologically, cognitively and psycho-socially. Then you overlay the demands of competitive sports at the world class level and wow, how do you successfully navigate that?” asked Michael Bergeron, who has extensively researched young athletes and…

Skip next section Russia and China hold joint military exercises07/25/2024July 25, 2024Russia and China hold joint military exercisesRussia and China held joint air force drills near Alaska late on Wednesday, both countries confirmed. They said that the exercises were not targeted at “third countries.” Moscow said its “Tu-95MS strategic missile carriers and the Chinese air force’s Xian H-6 strategic bombers carried out an aerial patrol over the Chukchi and Bering Seas and the north Pacific Ocean.” The two strategic bombers are nuclear-capable. The US military’s North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said US and Canadian fighter jets had intercepted the aircraft in…

Over the past ten years, Venezuela has seen a brain drain of unprecedented proportions, as eight million people have left the South American country — about a quarter of its entire population. Suffering from a severe food crisis, hyperinflation, and a massive loss of skilled workers, Venezuela’s economic and humanitarian crises are mainly the result of failed economic policies under socialist President Nicolas Maduro and his firebrand predecessor Hugo Chavez. The situation has worsened amid sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe on the two leaders for their political repression and human rights violations. Sunday’s presidential elections is pitting incumbent…

There was a moment of confusion before the dust finally settled. The roads leading to the Presidential Palace in Niger’s capital Niamey remained blocked for hours on July 26, 2023, with some people demonstrating for President Mohamed Bazoum to remain in power. Just before midnight, Colonel-Major Amadou Abdramane made the fateful announcement on TV: “We, the Forces of Defence and Security, united in the National Council for the Salvation of the Fatherland (CNSP), have decided to call an end to the regime that you have known,” Abdramane said, citing the deterioration of security as well as bad governance for their main reasons. Initially, there was…

A rare explosion of steam, water and rock forced tourists to run for safety at Yellowstone National Park in the US.Footage showed a column of black and grey vapour rising in the air as people warned each other to “back up”. The hydrothermal explosion happened on Tuesday at Biscuit Basin, a collection of hot springs near the famous Old Faithful Geyser in Wyoming.A wooden walkway was left covered in silt, but officials said no injuries had been reported as they closed the area.Yellowstone sits on a dormant volcano, but the explosion – which sent debris an estimated 100 feet into…

On July 10, A-list actor George Clooney asked a struggling Joe Biden to withdraw from the presidential race with Donald Trump and make way for a fresh face. When news broke Sunday that the incumbent had dropped out and endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, a host of Hollywood luminaries from actors Robert De Niro to Jamie Lee Curtis expressed their immediate support for the switch.  Curtis, star of horror classics like “Halloween,” took to Instagram soon after the announcement to heartily endorse Harris — a former attorney general of California and US senator who has yet to be formally nominated…

The French Alps was provisionally chosen to host the 2030 Winter Olympics on Wednesday. The decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is contingent on French President Emmanuel Macron signing a document to guarantee funding and security commitments no later than October 1. “I confirm the full commitment of the French nation, and assure you that I will ask the next prime minister to include not only this guarantee but also an Olympic Law in the priorities of the new government,” Macron said at the IOC session on Wednesday. “Seven years ago, we made the same commitment [for the Paris…