Author: DW

New limits to a person’s daily exposure to silica dust in the construction, mining, dentistry and other industries could save about 13,000 lives worldwide. That’s what researchers in the UK recommend, having found that a worker’s lifetime exposure to current, “acceptable” limits can result in serious risk of developing silicosis, a potentially fatal lung disease. They warn that silicosis could become as big a health problem as exposure to asbestos. “Our research supports the reduction of exposure to silica dust from 0.1 mg/m3 to 0.05 mg/m3 over a working day,” said study author Patrick Howlett from London’s Imperial College. The study was published in the British…

It’s not just the four gold medals. Or the enduring emotion of a partisan Parisian crowd. It’s also because Leon Marchand managed to achieve something almost everyone thought impossible, and that he will be remembered as the defining figure of the 2024 Olympics. Victory in the 200-meter butterfly then 200-meter breaststroke on the same Wednesday evening was a feat even his coach, Bob Bowman, thought beyond the limits. “My coach didn’t really want me to do that because it was impossible to do and had never been done before,” Marchand told DW. “It was really big chance for me and I…

Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammed Yunus was expected to return to Bangladesh on Thursday to take office as the head of an interim government after a student-led uprising forced Sheikh Hasina to end her more than 15-year rule. Yunus, 84, could be sworn in as soon as Thursday evening — marking the beginning of what the army chief pledged would be a “beautiful democratic process.”  Just a week ago, the Bangladeshi military was shooting at students protesting against Hasina’s government, killing at least 300 people. Yunus — ‘the name of confidence’ The lauded professor is currently the only name that instills confidence…

When Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel ended her political career three years ago, I was supposed to interview her counterpart, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, in Moscow, for a documentary. Other heads of state and government who had worked with Merkel during her time in office were also to feature in the program, a retrospective of the German leader and her career. But the Kremlin said no. The reason it gave was that all the other interview partners were former leaders, whereas the Russian president was still in office. The project was therefore deemed unworthy of him. I was, at least, allowed…

Germany’s railway system was once a source of national pride. But the network and its operator, Deutsche Bahn (DB), have become a major source of frustration for train travelers in recent years. Passengers are increasingly confronted with overcrowding, delays and cancellations, as well as regular closures of large sections of track for maintenance and repair works. DB’s problems also grabbed attention abroad during the 2024 UEFA European Football Championship, which took place in Germany between June 14 and July 14. Train breakdowns and overcrowded platforms made international news and caused acute embarrassment in a country that has a reputation for efficiency, punctuality and top-quality…

Temperatures on the Great Barrier Reef have soared to their highest in 400 years, a new study has found.It said the “unprecedented” heat on the sea surface around the natural wonder is driving increasingly frequent mass bleaching events that are putting it in danger. Without stronger and faster action to tackle climate change, our generation will “likely be witness to the demise of one of Earth’s great natural wonders”, according to the paper, published today in the peer-reviewed journal Nature.The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef system and gives life to diverse species, from whales and dolphins…

Does the cradle of modern European humanity lie in southwestern Germany’s Swabian Jura? That’s the conclusion drawn by archaeologists in light of discoveries made there of several 40,000-year-old figurines carved from mammoth ivory. Now, a further discovery in the Hohle Fels cave near Blaubeuren has confirmed this hypothesis about early humans. During excavations there, a Danish student found an animal figurine. It’s only six centimeters (2.4 inches) long and has no head, but researchers are certain it is a representation of an otter. For archaeology professor Nicholas Conard from the University of Tübingen, the small animal is the “find of the year.”…

The discovery of 700,000-year-old bone fragments on the volcanic Indonesian island Flores suggests that the smallest known human species was even smaller than previously thought. An analysis of fossilized remains of two teeth and an upper arm bone — called the humerus — of an extinct hominin species called Homo floresiensis has been published in the journal Nature Communications. These pint-sized cousins of our own Homo sapiens species lived on the Indonesian archipelago until around 50,000 years ago, when they became extinct. When the first Homo floresiensis specimen was unearthed in Flores’ Liang Bua cave in 2003, archaeologists were struck by how…

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday pledged swift action toward far-right rioters who stirred unrest across the country in recent days.  What did Starmer say? “Whatever the apparent motivation, this is not protest. It is pure violence, and we will not tolerate attacks on mosques or our Muslim communities,” Starmer said. “The full force of the law will be visited on all those who are identified as having taken part in these activities.”Far-right riots unsettle UK’s Muslim communityTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The rioters have been influenced by…

Former Argentine President Alberto Fernandez on Tuesday denied allegations that he was violent towards his ex-partner and former first lady Fabiola Yanez. In a post on X, the former president and judge said he learned of the accusations from media reports and planned to prove his innocence to the court with evidence. “I will just say that it is false and what she is accusing me of never happened,” Fernandez said. “I will provide evidence and testimonies before the courts to show what really happened.” Yanez, an actress and journalist who now lives in Madrid with their two-year-old son, earlier…