Author: DW

Tyler Bosselman is wearing the dark blue vest and the red tie of a Deutsche Bahntrain driver. As he sits comfortably in the operator’s seat of his regional DB train, the landscapes of southern Germany rush by outside, reflected in the sunglasses he’s wearing. Construction is underway on one of the routes that the 24-year-old Bosselman drives. It’s the busy Riedbahn route between Frankfurt and Mannheim in Germany, which is getting new switches and signals to make rail traffic run more smoothly. The goal is to finish the overhaul by the end of December, and Bosselman hopes that the upgrade will make Deutsche Bahn “more reliable overall.”Bosselman refuses…

A lawn can feel like a little oasis, our very own patch of nature. But throughout history, lawns have been powerful symbols of orderliness — and wealth.  When France’s King Louis XIV — also known as the Sun King — moved to Versailles in 1661, he commissioned a famous French landscape architect, Andre Le Notre, to design the gardens at Versailles palace. Le Notre understood that the gardens, which included meticulous lawns, were political: They were a way for the king to communicate that all was in order and under control. The planner notably created a “tapis vert,” literally a “green carpet”…

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called on his country’s military for a “limitless” expansion of its nuclear program to counter US-led threats, in comments reported on Monday. Kim gave a speech to battalion commanders and political instructors on Friday, state media KCNA reported, adding that he urged the military to focus efforts on completing war preparations. “He ardently called upon all the participants to go all out for bringing about substantial and fundamental improvement in improving their capabilities for fighting an actual war,” KCNA said. Kim criticized the United States for its updated nuclear strategies with South Korea and…

Amidst a conversation about packed playing schedules, a country coming to terms with the prospect of a snap election and the unappealing nature of dark mid-November evenings in central Europe, the return of international football feels untimely in Germany. Yet, for the sold-out crowd in Freiburg who watched Germany hammer Bosnia and Herzegovina 7-0, Julian Nagelsmann’s team remains a draw. This team is exciting to watch. Maybe it’s because they scored seven goals (their highest win under Nagelsmann). Maybe it’s because half of the team gave their jackets to the kids shivering in front of them during the national anthem. Maybe it’s…

US president-elect Donald Trump on Sunday nominated Brendan Carr to lead the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) media regulator. In his statement on the nomination, Trump described Car as a “warrior for free speech.” It comes days after Trump nominated Robert F Kennedy Jr. to be the head of the US’ federal health agency. What else did Trump say about Carr? Carr has “fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans’ Freedoms” and will “end the regulatory onslaught that has been crippling America’s Job Creators and Innovators, and ensure that the FCC delivers for rural America,” Trump said. Carr said in…

Dozens of people are said to have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza, while in Beirut, another Israeli strike has reportedly killed Hezbollah’s head of media relations.Residents and medics said a multi-storey residential building housing at least six families had been targeted in the Gazan town of Beit Lahiya. About 70 people were living in the property, the Palestinian Civil Emergency said, while the Gaza government media office said 72 people had been killed.Video footage of the site of the strike, obtained by the Reuters news agency, showed bodies being pulled from a large pile of rubble,…

Anyone who attends a tech summit in 2024 can expect to be confronted with artificial intelligence (AI) every which way they turn. In that sense Web Summit, Europe’s largest tech conference annually held in Lisbon, Portugal was no different. But for the 70,000 plus crowd of visitors, startups, investors and executives passing through the halls in Lisbon’s International Fair, another topic was floating through the air — what exactly will Donald Trump’s second term mean for the tech industry, particularly in Europe? A couple of panels tackled the geopolitical question head on, with titles such as “A new Trump era”…

The missionary position is a strange name for a face-to-face, horizontal, often heterosexual bedroom maneuver with the man on top. But the story behind the naming of this routine sexual position has more plot twists than one might expect. Did missionaries spread the idea of the missionary position? Since medieval times, Catholic popes, bishops and priests were meant to refrain from having sex, an indulgence that would distract from their devotion to God. But that does not mean they think other people should not be doing it. “The church of course needs people to go to the church, to keep the church alive. So, the more you have children, the more you are a…

Protesters who stormed the parliament building in Georgia’s Russia-backed breakaway region of Abkhazia refused to leave the premises on Saturday, despite the president’s offer to resign. Opposition activists stormed the parliament and a presidential administration building in the region’s capital, Sukhumi, on Friday, protesting an investment agreement with Moscow that would allow Russians to buy local real estate.Protesters are angry at a new investment deal with MoscowImage: Anzhela Kuchuberia/TASS/dpa/picture alliance Abkhazia, nestled between the Caucasus mountains and the Black Sea, has been thrown into turmoil over concerns that property prices will increase and that Moscow’s dominance in the region will be reinforced. What did…

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi on Saturday strongly denied a reported meeting between Tehran’s United Nations envoy and Elon Musk, the US billionaire and close adviser to President-elect Donald Trump. US media, including The New York Times, reported this week that Musk and Iran’s UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani met for an hour-long conversation in New York on Monday. “This was a fabricated story by American media, and the motives behind this can also be speculated,” Araqchi said in an interview with state television, echoing an earlier denial by Iran’s Foreign Ministry. Leadership did not give permission for meeting, minister…