Author: DW

Skip next section Live coverage ending as Scholz heads back to Berlin07/02/2024July 2, 2024Live coverage ending as Scholz heads back to BerlinGerman Chancellor Olaf Scholz thanked Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk for the constructive intergovernmental consultations.  “We want a strong Polish voice in Europe, because the security of our countries is inextricably linked. We stand up for this, as neighbors, as NATO allies and as EU partners,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter, in German and Polish. On Wednesday, Scholz is scheduled to appear before the Bundestag for a question and answer session. Scholz will begin with a statement for which…

The School of Management and Business (HSB) at the Vietnam National University in Hanoi believes the connection between height and success is so significant that people who are supposedly “too short” should no longer be allowed to study.   The school announced that female students must be at least 1.58 meters tall and male students at least 1.65 meters to be considered for admission this year. It added that exceptions could be allowed in some cases. After the Vietnamese online newspaper Tuoi Tre first reported on this height criterion for admissions, it sparked heated debates on social media. On June 6, the…

Hurricane Beryl is hurtling towards Jamaica as a powerful category four storm, after killing at least six people in the southeast Caribbean.The destructive weather pattern was forecast to start losing intensity on Tuesday and was downgraded from a category five hurricane – the most powerful type. But it will still be near major hurricane strength when it passes near or over Jamaica early on Wednesday, near the Cayman Islands on Thursday, and into Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Friday, according to the National Hurricane Centre. Image: Damage to businesses in Soufriere, St Lucia. Pic: Reuters Image: A flooded road in Bridgetown,…

A police officer in Germany lost his job after stealing about 180 kilograms of cheddar cheese from an overturned truck following an accident. The Rhineland-Palatinate Higher Administrative Court on Tuesday rejected the man’s appeal, meaning the decision to dismiss him stands. What was the policeman charged with? The officer worked for the highway patrol and was assigned to secure the scene of an accident, the court said. “He drove a police minibus close to the damaged truck, opened the sliding side door of the police bus and asked the employee of a salvage company working there to hand him several undamaged…

The World Bank has approved a grant for Zambia worth $208 million (roughly €193.7 million), as the southern African country struggles to address the impact of drought overwhelming the region. Zambia’s Finance Ministry announced the grant on Tuesday. Severe drought in southern Africa leaves millions in needTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video What do we know about the grant? The Finance Ministry said the grant was meant to help Lusaka effectively respond to the impact of the drought. It would allow the government to provide more affected people with direct cash…

The mother of missing Jay Slater has said “words cannot describe the pain and agony” she and her family are feeling about the teenager’s disappearance.The 19-year-old, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, was last seen on 17 June after setting off to walk back to his accommodation while on holiday in Tenerife. In a statement issued through the British overseas missing persons charity LBT Global, Debbie Duncan said the family were “absolutely devastated” by his disappearance.”Jay is a normal guy who is in his third year of an apprenticeship, and he is a very popular young man with a large circle of…

It can’t have been an easy meeting for Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Tuesday, but both leaders mustered a smile as they shook hands for the cameras. “I asked the Ukrainian president to think about whether we could reverse the order, to speed up peace talks by making a ceasefire first,” Orban, a strident nationalist, said in a brief press statement alongside Zelenskyy in Kyiv, during his first visit to Kyiv since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. “A ceasefire connected to a deadline would give a chance to speed up peace…

Heavy rains in northeastern India triggered floods and landslides in the region. At least 16 people have died over the last two weeks and more than 300,000 have been displaced from their submerged homes, local authorities said on Tuesday. One of the worst hit places is the state of Assam, where the Indian Army and Air Force have been assisting with rescue efforts. A military helicopter flew out on Tuesday to bring 13 fishermen to safety, after they had been stranded for four days on a small river island on the Brahmaputra, officials said. A woman fetches water in a flood-affected…

Firefighters in Greece are spending a second day fighting wildfires on the island of Kos.Hundreds of tourists and residents were forced to flee on Monday as the flames spread amid “apocalyptic” scenes. Some tourists were forced to take refuge in a football stadium and other venues overnight after the fires and thick black smoke reached costal areas, including the seaside village of Kardamaina.Holidaymaker Eileen Brown said she arrived at her hotel in the area on Sunday but was soon evacuated and had to sleep outside last night. Image: Holidaymakers gather overnight on a football pitch in Kos. Pic: Alan Boyle/Reuters…

Former Dutch intelligence chief Dick Schoof was sworn in as prime minister on Tuesday at the head of a coalition government promising to implement the Netherlands’ “strictest ever” asylum and immigration policy. The 67-year-old Independent candidate is succeeding departing Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who is set to become the next secretary-general of NATO after 14 years in office in The Hague. Schoof instead of Wilders Schoof’s inauguration comes seven months on from a general election in which far-right populist Geert Wilders’ PVV (Freedom Party) emerged as the Netherlands’ largest party. Traditionally, the leader of the largest party would be the favorite to become the Dutch…