Author: DW

Mark Rutte announced in July 2023 that he was resigning as prime minister of the Netherlands and “retiring from politics” after his government coalition collapsed over differences in migration policy.  By October of that year, however, Rutte had seemingly forgotten all about his vow to leave politics, signalling his interest in succeeding NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who had announced he would finally leave the post in September 2024 after a decade at the helm of the alliance. For months, Rutte ran a discreet one-man campaign to win over NATO leaders, most of whom he already knew from more than 13 years as Dutch…

Even though incumbent state premier Dietmar Woidke of the Social Democrats won the Brandenburg elections by a small margin, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) won just shy of 29.2% of the votes. That made the far-right party the second-strongest in the Brandenburgstate assembly behind the Social Democrats (SPD), who won 30.9%.  The AfD, which Germany’s constitutional court has classified as a “suspected far-right extremist organization,” gained 5.7 percentage points more than in the elections five years ago. The party scored a similarly outstanding result two weeks ago in the two eastern states of Thuringia and Saxony, where it garnered 32.8% and 30.6%, respectively. Many economists and business…

Mount Everest has grown by around 15 to 50 metres in the last 89,000 years, and it’s increasing every year. Now, scientists say that’s because the mountain’s water system captured a river.When the Arun River joined with another nearby river, the new path created the deep Arun Gorge near Everest. Now, the river network about 46 miles from the mountain is carving away at the substantial gorge, causing the nearby mountain to rise up by as much as two millimetres a year.”Mount Everest is a remarkable mountain of myth and legend and it’s still growing,” said PhD student Adam Smith,…

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s novella “The Sorrows of Young Werther” was a worldwide breakthrough for the 25-year-old when it was published 250 years ago.  It was rumored that the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte read the novel seven times and spoke of nothing else when he finally met Goethe.  The dark take on doomed love went somewhat viral for its time, striking a chord with a whole generation of young people. Young men struck by Werther ‘fever’ Werther is the novel’s protagonist — he is only referred to by his surname — who falls in love with Lotte, who is engaged. …

For the last two years, the possibility of Formula 1 returning to Africa has looked more and more likely. With public and private support from star driver Lewis Hamilton and a growing fan base on the continent, the continued omission of Africa from motorsport’s premium product looks increasingly unsustainable. After attempts to bring the sport back to the last location of a race in Africa –  the Kyalami racetrack in Johannesburg, South Africa –  failed, the wait continues. However, a recent meeting between South African Minister of Sports and Recreation Gayton McKenzie and Formula 1 Chief Executive Stefano Domenicali has reignited the belief that Africa will again have a…

Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) has scored a historic victory, winning the country’s parliamentary election for the first time. According to the preliminary official results, the FPÖ garnered 29.2% of votes, followed by Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s center-right conservative ÖVP with 26.48%. This confirmed earlier predictions by Institut Foresight which put the FPÖ at over 29% of the vote, a slightly better result than expected in the surveys done ahead of the Sunday polls. The FPÖ now has the most seats in the new Austrian parliament. Turnout stood at 74.9%, slightly down from the previous election in 2019. FPÖ ready to negotiate with other parties On Sunday evening,…

The meeting between China’s minister of commerce, Wang Wentao, and EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis in Brussels last week (September 19) came after the EU announced plans in July to levy import duties of up to 36% on some Chinese electric-vehicle (EV) imports, on top of the EU’s standard 10% import duty on cars. Following an anti-subsidy investigation started by Brussels last year, the EU Commission said China’s vast state subsidies create an unfair advantage for Chinese automakers and violate the principle of a level playing field for all competitors in the EV market.  Beijing has rejected the findings of the EU probe. After speaking to businesses on…

Multiple people have died after a single-engine plane crashed near a monument in honour of the pioneering US flyers, the Wright brothers.The aircraft went down at around 5pm on Saturday, local time, at the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Outer Banks, North Carolina. The US National Park Service, quoting eyewitnesses, said the plane was trying to land at the First Flight Airport but crashed.The plane caught fire after the crash, the service said, before being extinguished by the Kill Devil Hills Fire Department and other local fire departments.The airport is closed until further notice, with the memorial closed on Sunday.…

What actually happened? Euro 2024 hosts Germany and Spain are tied 1-1 in extra time of their quarterfinal in Stuttgart. The match is in the 106th minute when German attacker Jamala Musiala takes a shot that gets blocked by Spanish defender Marc Cucurella’s hand. English referee Anthony Taylor lets play continue and video assistant referee Stuart Attwell fails to intervene. In the 119th minute, Mikel Merino scores with a header to make it 2-1 for Spain. Germany are knocked out of the competition and Spain go on to win the European Championship. What was the reaction at the time? “I don’t want to complain,…

Polling was underway in Austria on Sunday in a general election that could see the far-right gain a narrow but historic victory over the governing conservatives. Voting began at 7 a.m. local time (0500 GMT), with over 6.3 million people of Austria’s 9 million residents eligible to vote. Immigration concerns and an economic downturn have dominated the electoral landscape in the Alpine EU nation. The growing popularity of the FPÖ The far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) has been in government several times but it has never topped a national vote. That could change this time, though, with pre-election polls showing the anti-immigrant party could…