Author: DW

So, there’s speculation about US President Joe Biden’s health. Many “experts” have delivered their verdicts on Biden’s fitness for a second term in office. Is Biden hiding dementia? There’s no way of telling by remote diagnosis. But presidents and their challengers are loath to be explicit about their health. They assume, rightly or wrongly, that the  electorate wants strong, healthy leaders. So, they keep schtum. And that can create more speculation.    In a historical review, the researchers concluded that [several] presidents hid their “infirmity outright or otherwise minimize[d] its severity.” Before we take a look, let’s first clear up that speculation…

Stability has been in short supply in Germany’s women’s national team recently. Through the coaching confusion, World Cup post-mortems and international retirements of stalwarts Svenja Huth and Melanie Leupolz, Alexandra Popp has been one of very few constants. Although the Wolfsburg striker, 33, will miss Friday’s Euro 2025 qualifier against Iceland due to a minor foot ailment, she is poised to captain a new-look Germany squad hoping to recapture Olympic gold in Paris as the only survivor in the 16-woman squad of the 2016 win. With Sara Däbritz also absent through injury, interim coach Horst Hrubesch, who will give way to Christian Wück after the…

“The influence of China on Guinea-Bissau is undeniable, especially in economic terms,” 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 says: “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,” Diamantino Lopes states. From July 9 to…

Nirmala and Milan Bastola are about to celebrate their silver jubilee as a same-sex couple this year. They come from Mangalpur, a small village in Nepal’s Chitwan district, nearly 190 kilometers (118 miles) south of the capital Kathmandu. The couple faced enormous challenges and social pressure as they fought for acceptance of their relationship. “It was worth every effort. There was discouragement, yet we focused more on the support we received from our friends and family,” Milan, a transgender person, told DW.  The couple adopted a newborn child in 2009, and for years they felt everything was going according to…

Skip next section Blinken says F-16 jets from Denmark, Netherlands en route to Ukraine 07/10/2024July 10, 2024Blinken says F-16 jets from Denmark, Netherlands en route to Ukraine F-16 fighter aircraft are en route to Ukraine from Denmark and the Netherlands, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced during the NATO summit on Wednesday. The first batch of the US-built fighter planes were already being transferred, Blinken said. “And those jets…will be flying in the skies of Ukraine this summer to make sure that Ukraine can continue to effectively defend itself against the Russian aggression.” The F-16 transfer “concentrates Vladimir Putin’s…

China has detained a man after custom officials “discovered” more than 100 live snakes in his pants. According to authorities, the man was stopped in his tracks at Futian Port on the border between the Chinese administrative region of Hong Kong and the mainland city of Shenzhen. Customs officials found six cloth bags with snakes hidden in the man’s clothing. “Upon inspection, customs officers discovered that the pockets of the trousers the passenger was wearing were packed with six canvas drawstring bags and sealed with tape,” the statement said. Milk and corn snakes “Once opened, each bag was found to contain living snakes in all…

Former reality TV personality Spencer Matthews is preparing to attempt a new Guinness World Record by running 30 marathons in 30 days – through scorching temperatures in the Jordanian desert.The 35-year-old is now an endurance athlete, podcaster and entrepreneur, and has previously completed three ultramarathons in the Amazon Rainforest as well as the Arctic. He has also taken part in the Marathon des Sables, dubbed the “toughest footrace on Earth” – a seven-day, 250km-ultramarathon in the Sahara Desert.And he’s about to undertake the equivalent of five of those, back-to-back.”I think I will come out of this quite different”, he said.…

A video shows an episode of Family Guy, one of the world’s best-known cartoon comedy shows, in which Peter Griffin, the main character, drives a van containing a bomb at gunpoint over the bridge. It is a clip from the episode “Turban Cowboy,” which aired in 2013. However, the audio accompanying the video has changed, as Peter Griffin, normally voiced by show creator Seth MacFarlane, sings some unusual lyrics. “Our weapons are heavy, our ranks are many, but the soldiers of Allah are more than ready,” he warbles in the song in his distinctive Rhode Island accent, meant to encourage followers of the extremist…

The idea of China outstripping the United States to become the world’s largest economy has been a fixation for policymakers and economists for decades. What will happen, they argue, when the US — one of the most dynamic, productive economies — is usurped by an authoritarian regime with a three-quarter-of-a-billion-strong workforce? Predictions of when exactly China would steal the US crown have come thick and fast ever since the 2008/9 financial crisis, which hampered growth in the US and Europe for many years. Before the Great Recession, China saw double-digit annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth for at least five years. In the decade following the…

An Irish woman who was detained by police and charged with attempting suicide by a Dubai court will be allowed to return home, Ireland’s prime minister has said.Tori Towey, from Boyle in County Roscommon, says she tried to take her own life after allegedly being attacked and left with severe bruising and other injuries.Irish authorities were urged to intervene after the 28-year-old, who works in the United Arab Emirates as an airline cabin crew member, was taken to a police station and her passport blocked from use.Taoiseach Simon Harris now says the travel ban imposed by Dubai authorities has been…