Author: DW

The karearea, New Zealand’s only falcon, was crowned Bird of the Year in the country’s annual bird competition on Monday. This year, more than 75,000 voters from 123 countries flocked online to rank their favorite bird, according to Forest & Bird Chief Executive Nicola Toki. Voter participation was second only to the competition in 2023 when Last Week Tonight host John Oliver playfully volunteered as a campaign manager. “Behind the memes and mayhem is a serious message,” said Toki. New Zealand’s fastest bird Capable of flying 200 kilometers (124 miles) per hour to capture its prey, the karearea, the Indigenous…

Sixty-two years old at the time, Volodymyr Mykolaienko joined his local territorial defense force on the day Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. His hometown of Kherson, where he served as mayor from 2014 to 2020, was captured by Russian troops within weeks. The following month, soldiers arrested Mykolaienko on the street. He was interrogated, tortured, and taken as a prisoner to occupied Crimea, then on to a penal colony in Russia. Kherson remained under occupation for nine months, until Ukrainian troops liberated the city in November 2022. Mykolaienko spent more than three years in captivity before…

Miradie Tchekpo biggest dream has come true: She has landed a job as an interpreter working for a Chinese trading company in her home country of Benin.  “In middle school, I watched Chinese TV channels and dreamed of traveling to China and getting to know the culture,” she told DW. “So I studied Chinese … and attended courses for three years to gain a professional qualification in Chinese,” she said. After finishing school, Tchekpo enrolled at the Confucius Institute — China’s government-run institute for the promotion of its language and culture — at the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin. She hopes that one day she will get to look…

Chimpanzees regularly consume fermented fruit in the wild – ingesting significant amounts of alcohol in the process, according to a new studypublished by Science. Researchers led by Aleksey Maro from the University of California reported this month that each day the animals consume a dose equivalent to approximately one small bottle of beer for humans. In Uganda’s Kibale National Park and the Ivory Coast’s Taï National Park, the researchers analyzed the 20 most popular fruit varieties, whose ripe pulp contains an average alcohol content of 0.3%. Since a chimpanzee consumes around 4.5 kilograms of these fruits each day, the amount…

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has lifted all sanctions against Russia and Belarus. Both countries had been under sanctions since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which involved using Belarusian territory to march on Kyiv. At their general assembly in Seoul, the IPC first voted against a full suspension of Russia on Saturday (111-55, 11 abstentions). It was then followed by a vote against the partial suspension that had been in place (91-77, 8). The same votes were then conducted regarding Belarus, with the partial suspension also lifted. What did the IPC state? “This decision means NPC Belarus and…

Skip next section WATCH — Moldova’s Gagauzia at a crossroads between East and West09/28/2025September 28, 2025WATCH — Moldova’s Gagauzia at a crossroads between East and WestAhead of the parliamentary election on September 28, DW asked some locals in the largely pro-Russian Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia how they see their future. In the early 1990s, the region of Gagauzia made a push for independence, which ended when the Moldovan government granted it extensive autonomy in 1994. Unlike the rest of Moldova, where Romanian is the main language, many people here speak Russian and consume Russian-language media — giving them strong cultural…

Thousands of protesters gathered in Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires, on Saturday to call for justice for three young women whose torture and murders were broadcast live on social media. Some demonstrators held placards with the names and pictures of the victims — Morena Verdi and Brenda Del Castillo, cousins aged 20, and 15-year-old Lara Gutierrez. One sign read “It was a narco-feminicide!” “Women must be protected more than ever,” said Del Castillo’s father, Leonel, at the protest.Morena Verdi was one of the three women who was murdered in a case that has rocked ArgentinaImage: Luis Robayo/AFP He had earlier shared that he had…

Georg Stefan Troller, who died on September 27 at the age of 103, lived what could simply be described as a storied life.   An Austrian Jew who escaped the Nazis, he emigrated to the US but returned to Germany to work for the Allied Forces as an interpreter during the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp. Troller would eventually spend the rest of his life in Europe, gaining prominence as a writer and reporter, and especially for his unconventional interviews of international luminaries for German television. Fleeing the Nazis Born on December 10, 1921 to a Jewish furrier family in…

What to know In most cases acetaminophen (the active ingredient in Tylenol) and paracetamol products are the only approved painkillers for use during pregnancy. No high-quality scientific study exists that shows the use of these painkillers in pregnancy causes autism. Medical practitioners have urged pregnant women to seek advice from their trusted medical practitioners when considering appropriate pain relief. “By September we will know what has caused the autism epidemic. And we’ll be able to eliminate those exposures.” So said US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a televised meeting of US President Donald Trump’s cabinet in April 2025.…

Is a suspension of Israel really on the cards? UEFA, European football’s governing body, is reportedly closing in on a suspension of Israel. According to the Associated Press and Britain’s “The Times” newspaper, a majority on the UEFA Executive Committee is prepared to support a suspension. This comes after a group of experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council accused Israel of genocide through its actions in the Gaza Strip. UEFA has not yet issued an official statement but a vote could take place as early as next week. Media reports suggest that Qatar is playing a central role…