Author: DW

Since the war in Iran started, worries about oil and gas have made the biggest headlines and sparked the loudest complaints from consumers. But another bottleneck in the global supply network is also causing alarm: a shortage of helium, an essential component used to make, among other things, semiconductors — those tiny chips that help run everything from electric vehicles to smartphones.   A prolonged shortage of helium could lead to a shortfall of advanced chips and have knock-on effects for electronics manufacturers who depend on them, or force others to scale back their datacenter plans. Why is helium essential for chipmakers? Considering that…

Senegal were sensationally stripped of their Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) title on Tuesday night and tournament hosts Morocco crowned champions instead, two months after African football’s showpiece event concluded with a chaotic final in Rabat. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) declared that Senegal had “forfeited” the January 18 final by leaving the pitch in protest over a controversial late penalty awarded to Morocco — an incident that also prompted an attempted pitch invasion by furious Senegalese fans. When the Senegalese players eventually returned to face the penalty 15 minutes later, Moroccan star Brahim Diaz inexplicably and controversially chipped the ball…

If you thought that the “I was here” style graffiti is a modern-day phenomenon confined to the backs of bathroom stalls, think again! New technologies are unearthing graffiti scratched on ancient sites like never before, giving voice to everyday people of the ancient world — from enslaved individuals to bored soldiers who etched their names onto walls. The ancient graffiti research epicenter, so to speak, is the once-bustling city of Pompeii, which was buried in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. The eruption left buildings exquisitely preserved under meters of ash. Since excavations started in the 18th century, archeologists have…

US President Donald Trump recently hosted executives from seven major defense contractors in the White House — part of an attempt by his administration to shore up the sector as the war against Iran intensifies. The conflict has exposed strains within the US defense sector. There are concerns over US stockpiles of long-range missiles and air-defence interceptors, and over the sector’s capacity to ramp up production in the event of a prolonged conflict. Trump said he had discussed “production and production schedules” with the companies, namely Lockheed Martin, RTX (Raytheon), BAE Systems, Boeing, Honeywell Aerospace and Northrop Grumman, at the White House…

While the days of soccer being a go-to conservative punching bag for being “socialist” or a “sign of the nation’s moral decay” have largely subsided, right-leaning publications still regularly trot out arguments for why the “US doesn’t care about soccer” or the sport is “unjust and un-American”. In recent years, the sport has also served as a lighting rod in American culture wars, with the US women’s national team in particular landing in the crosshairs of Donald Trump and the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement for its outspoken progressive players. With the men’s World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico rapidly approaching…

Ahead of the Oscars night, the award ceremony’s host Conan O’Brien gave the impression he would be avoiding politics: “We’re celebrating movies and the amazing people behind them, but it has to be funny without tipping into anger or politics,” he’d said at a press conference. But then, at the beginning of the Sunday night ceremony, he warned that “things could get political,” adding: “So there’s an alternate Oscars hosted by Kid Rock at the Dave and Busters down the street,” referring to the conservative-leaning alternative “All-American Halftime Show” that had been produced during the Super Bowl in protest of Bad Bunny’s performance at the…

It was with obvious pride that Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk took to social media on February 6. Sharing a picture of an article in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung titled “The Poles Are Coming,” he wrote, “See how this phrase has changed over the past 30 years. The German press reports that our companies are increasingly taking over established Western brands, not the other way around. Poland is coming to its senses.” The article he referenced was about an apparently growing trend: Polish companies acquiring and buying stakes in Western companies, including many in Germany. According to data compiled by…

Mexico City set a Guinness World Record Sunday for having held the largest soccer class, with about 9,500 people having taken part in a training session in a public sqaure in the city. Participants filled the central plaza, known as Zocalo, for a 40-minute open-air class, practicing drills under instructors as part of a campaign ahead of the FIFA World Cup in June. Among those participating were members of the Mexico team that won the unofficial 1971 Women’s World Cup. Guinness World Records judge Alfredo Arista confirmed the record during the event. Organizers said the turnout surpassed the previous record of 1,038 participants set in…

Protected landmarks and humanity’s cultural heritage are threatened by the US-Israel war with Iran. UNESCO-listed sites, including palaces and an ancient mosque in Iran, are among the historical landmarks that have been damaged by the US-Israeli strikes, which began on February 28. UNESCO, the UN’s cultural body, has expressed its concern about the cultural heritage sites, saying in a statement that it has “communicated to all parties concerned the geographical coordinates of sites on the World Heritage List as well as those of national significance, to avoid any potential damage.” “UNESCO continues to closely monitor the situation of cultural heritage in the…

The world is naturally fixated on the oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers missing from the Strait of Hormuz due to the Iran war. After all, the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman carries around a fifth of global crude and LNG exports from the Gulf to the rest of the world. The more fragile cargo, however, is the fertilizer that helps feed the world and the food imports that keep Arabian Gulf states like the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia alive.  Gulf nations account for 20% of global traded volumes of key fertilizers such as ammonia, phosphates and…