Author: DW

Iran’s sports minister said Wednesday that Iran would not take part in the 2026 World Cup, citing airstrikes carried out in the country by the tournament co-host, the US, alongside Israel. “Since this corrupt government assassinated our leader, we have no conditions under which we can participate in the World Cup,” the minister, Ahmad Donyamali, said on state television. “Our children are not safe,” he added. Federation chief floats boycott, cites Australia precedent It is not yet clear whether the decision is final. But Mehdi Taj, the president of the Iranian Football Federation, has raised the prospect of a boycott.…

It was an idea US President Donald Trump first floated in October last year: a triumphal arch in Washington, DC to mark the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence on July 4. Speaking to donors at a White House dinner, he revealed several scale models, inspired by Paris’ Arc de Triomphe — earning the project the nickname, “Arc de Trump.” When asked by a CBS news reporter who the arch was for, he reportedly pointed to himself saying “me,” adding that it would be “really beautiful.” Donald Trump holding up a model of an arch in October 2025Image: RS/MPI/Capital Pictures/picture alliance…

Coordinated efforts to keep oil prices and fuel prices at filling stations in check began to emerge on Wednesday in Germany and elsewhere. The moves come amid the fast-rising prices caused by the attacks on Iran and wider conflict in the region.  Germany, Austria, Japan, France, Spain all signal movement German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche called a lunchtime press conference in Berlin, a day after Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil had said the government was open to releasing some of its reserves. Reiche told reporters that the IEA had asked its members to free up 400 million barrels of oil in total…

What is the latest on the Iran women’s football team? After their Asian Cup campaign ended on Sunday in Australia, the Iran team bus was surrounded by hundreds of protesters chanting “save our girls.” The players onboard were reportedly seen making SOS signs and photographing those outside. The bus went back to the team hotel on the Gold Coast but on Monday, there are widespread reports that five players escaped the hotel. “Our understanding is that the players are currently staying in a hotel under heavy monitoring,” Zaki Haidari, on the scene for Amnesty International, told DW moments before the first reports of escape…

Skip next section Wadephul is in Cyprus for crisis talks on Iran war03/09/2026March 9, 2026Wadephul is in Cyprus for crisis talks on Iran warIn light of the war with Iran, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul arrived in Cyprus for crisis talks. On Tuesday, Wadephul is set to discuss the situation in the Middle East with his counterpart, Konstantinos Kombos, in Nicosia, the capital. Last week, an Iranian-made drone struck the British air base in Akrotiri, Cyprus. The agenda for Wadephul’s talks with Kombos also includes topics related to Cyprus’s current term leading the EU presidency. Since 2004, Cyprus has been…

Volkswagen’s top executives on Tuesday said the vast automotive empire suffered a 44% reduction in net profits in 2025, with gains after tax dropping to €6.9 billion (roughly $8 billion) from 12.4 billion in 2024. That’s the company’s worst annual overall performance since 2016, at the height of the financial fallout from the so-called “Dieselgate” scandal.  “2025 was punctuated by geopolitical tensions, tariffs and highly intense competition,” Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz said in the company press release.  The VW Group is planning 50,000 job cuts across its various brands by 2030. It is struggling with falling demand and rapidly improving…

Five Iranianwomen’s national team players were granted humanitarian visas in Australiaamid fears of persecution back home. “Australians have been moved by the plight of these brave women,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at a press conference on Tuesday. “They’re safe here, and they should feel at home here,” he added. According to Albanese, all other members of Iran’s squad are welcome to receive help, but it was up to them to accept the offer. Australian police took the five Iran squad members from their hotel in Gold Coast, moving them to a “safe location” after their asylum requests.Supporters of…

A tool of endless potential or a technology that threatens democracy via deepfakes? While AI-generated imagery has made its way into our everyday lives, its impact on society is still being explored. The exhibition “Fake! Early Photo Collages and Photomontages,” which can be seen at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam until May 25, takes a step back from the ongoing discussion to remind us that images were faked and manipulated way before the invention of Photoshop or AI. A 1908 photomontage shows how manipulated images were popular long before PhotoshopImage: rijksmuseum.nl”As soon as photography was invented, some 187 years ago, images have been changed, altered,…

China’s rise from poverty to the world’s second‑largest economy rewrote the rules of globalization. Now Beijing’s push into high-end technology is unfolding at an even faster pace. While the United States and United Kingdom had decades to absorb the first China shock at the turn of the century, those confronting the second — above all Germany — have had far less notice. An obvious sign that Beijing’s huge investments in high-tech were paying off emerged shortly after the first Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) rolled off transporters across Europe in 2023. While few believed they would make serious inroads against Germany’s legacy carmakers, just over two…

Traditional gender roles are undergoing something of a revival on social media, thanks to tradwife TikTok creators, right-wing influencers like Andrew Tate and others. Tate, one should add, is under investigation for abusing and raping various women. A new global study confirms that traditional values are making a comeback, while also revealing a surprising fact: almost one third of Generation Z men, meaning those born between 1997 and 2012, believe that wives should “always obey” her husbands. The survey – published ahead of International Women’s Day and conducted by Ipsos and the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London – analyzed the…