Author: DW

England have not made many friends at Euro 2024. They have disappointed, underwhelmed and, quite simply, bored spectators for much of the tournament. But one thing nobody can deny the Three Lions is that they roar the loudest when they are under attack. For the third time in three knockout ties, England conceded the first goal. For the third time, they were the team that went through. And on this occasion it wasn’t a case of one player producing heroics as everyone else desperately flailed around. Instead there were moments, especially in the first half, where England looked like a team,…

07/11/2024July 11, 2024NATO and Ukraine: ‘The stronger the signal these days, the better,” foreign relations expert tells DWGustav Gressel, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), told DW that Russia’s summer offensive in Ukraine was still in full swing and that Ukraine’s military ranks were stretched thin. “Ukraine has battled the Russian offensive quite well so far,” Gressel said. “By autumn, of course, the tide could stall, but Western assistance is good for the end of the year, or into the spring.” There was a question of where things could stand in terms of future international assistance…

“The influence of China on Guinea-Bissau is undeniable, especially in economic terms,” Bissau-Guinean sociologist and China expert, Diamantino Lopes, said in an interview with DW. Since the country’s independence from Portugal five decades ago, almost all infrastructure measures have been carried out and financed by the Chinese, the analyst added. “The government palace, the justice building, the parliament, the renovation of the Palace of the Republic, the 13-kilometer (8-mile) highway between the airport and Safim, the national stadium in Bissau, or the new fishing port in Bandim — the Chinese control almost everything here,” Lopes explained. This week, Guinea-Bissau’s President Umaro…

Are you a “night owl” or a “morning lark” — do you get up early to seize the day or stay up working late into the night? Whether you think it’s a preference, a habit, or just the way you are, it’s your “chronotype”. And a study suggests your chronotype can impact your general cognitive skills. The found night owls generally had higher cognitive scores than morning larks. The UK-based study, published July 11, 2024 in the journal BMJ Public Health, looked at data from more than 26,000 people, who had completed a number of cognitive tests. The aim was to find out how different aspects of sleep, including duration, patterns,…

Three days after the election, Emmanuel Macron had still not commented on the new balance of power in the country. There was silence at the Elysee. The French president was playing for time before appointing a new government. Though his prime minister, Gabriel Attal, resigned on Monday, he had decided to keep him in power until further notice. Observers doubted that France would have a new government before the Olympic Games came to an end in August. The new National Assembly, whose first session will be on July 18, is now dominated by three comparably large political camps. The broad…

Water pistols squirted at tourists, tape crisscrossing the doors of hotels, placards brandished at lunching holidaymakers.The images from an anti-tourism protest in Barcelona were stark – but do they tell the whole story? About 3,000 people took part in the demonstration in the Catalan capital on Saturday, led by the Assemblea de Barris pel Decreixement Turistic (ABDT), which translates to Neighbourhood Assembly for Tourism Degrowth.Why did they take to the streets – and should tourists reconsider their trips?’Tourists go home’ The messages painted on cardboard placards were succinct: “Tourists go home”; “Tourists out”; “Barcelona is not Disneyland”. Image: Pic: AP…

Europe’s Jewish community faces a “rising tide of antisemitism,” and the conflict in the Middle East is eroding progress made fighting against it, according to a report released Thursday by the European Union’s Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) on Jewish people’s experiences and perceptions of antisemitism. Even before Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israeli civilians and the ensuing war in Gaza, the report noted that 96% of European Jews reported experiencing antisemitic incidents. “Jews are more frightened than ever before,” said FRA Director Sirpa Rautio, adding that a “spillover effect of the conflict in the Middle East was eroding hard-fought-for progress” against anti-Jewish prejudice. The…

Sir Keir Starmer has told the Ukrainian president that British missiles can be used for defensive strikes against targets inside Russia.The announcement came as the new British prime minister met Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the NATO summit in Washington DC on Wednesday. The decision over the Storm Shadow missiles, which has been welcomed by Ukraine, represents a hawkish shift in policy from the stance taken by the former Conservative government.Signalling the move, but declining to get into “operational arrangements”, John Healey, the new defence secretary, told Sky News that Britain “will do all we can to help Ukraine in their fight…

Taiwan’s defense ministry has reported a surge of Chinese military aircraft around the self-ruled island, a day after Beijing reportedly conducted military drills with an aircraft carrier in nearby waters. The ministry on Thursday said it had detected 66 Chinese military aircraft operating around Taiwan in the past 24 hours, making it a record high this year. “66 PLA aircraft and seven PLAN vessels operating around Taiwan were detected up until 6 am (2200 GMT Wednesday) today,” the defense ministry said in its statement. As per the ministry, 56 of the planes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait,…

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday faced doubts about his reelection campaign from lawmakers from his Democratic Party. Late on Wednesday, Senator Peter Welch called on Biden to withdraw from the election, making him the first Democratic senator to do so. Biden is running for reelection in November, where he is likely to face off against former Republican President Donald Trump. The challenges come as 81-year-old Biden welcomes NATO leaders in Washington. What did Democrats say about Biden’s campaign? In an opinion piece for the Washington Post, Welch pointed to Biden’s performance during a debate with Trump in which the…