Author: DW

Cologne’s iconic cathedral will begin charging visitors an entrance fee starting from the second half of this year, its chapter announced on Thursday. In a press conference, the cathedral chapter said the fee is meant to cover the increasing cost of operating, maintaining and securing the facility. Entrance to the cathedral will remain free of charge for churchgoers, worshippers and members of the Central Cathedral Building Association. Why is the Cologne Cathedral so famous? The 157-meter (515-foot) cathedral has towered over Germany’s western city of Cologne for centuries. Built starting 1248, the Gothic cathedral’s construction was not finalized until 1880.…

Paramount Skydance is poised to emerge as the winner in a monthslong bidding war to buy Warner Bros. Discovery after streaming giant Netflix declined to raise its takeover offer on Thursday. The board of Warner Bros. announced that Paramount’s offer of $31-a-share (€26) was superior to the deal of $27.75 per share previously agreed on with Netflix for the storied Hollywood studio. Netflix on its part said that the revised bid from Paramount made the deal  “no longer financially attractive.” “The transaction we negotiated would have created shareholder value with a clear path to regulatory approval,” Netflix said in its statement.…

Berlin International Film Festival director Tricia Tuttle will remain head of the Berlinale, but must accept certain guidelines, as reported by German press following a crisis meeting held by the Berlin International Film Festival’s supervisory board, the Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin (KBB) on Wednesday.   A “consultative forum” and the development of a code of conduct for all cultural events funded by the German state are being planned, Minister of State for Culture Wolfram Weimer announced. Tuttle faced political backlash following pro-Palestinian speeches at the festival’s awards ceremony on February 21. Among them, Syrian-Palestinian director Abdallah Alkhatib accused Germany of accepting to be “partners of the genocide in Gaza…

The war in the Middle East has left global investors grappling with the impact of a drawn-out regional conflict on global energy supplies and its potential to stoke inflation around the world. Global stock markets have been sinking and oil and gas prices have soared since Monday, the first day of trading after US and Israeli attacks on Iran on Saturday (February 28) and Iran’s response, which involved targeting major oil and gas infrastructure in the region. Brent crude continued its rise on Wednesday, after breaching $80 (€69) a barrel the day before. Gas prices have also soared in Asia and Europe.…

The US-Israel war with Iran has caused many sporting events in the region to be postponed. The conflict is also affecting other events farther afield, largely by forcing changes to travel arrangements. Some questions cannot yet be answered. Iranian women kick off Women’s Asian Cup campaign The 2026 AFC Women’s Asian Cup kicked off on Sunday – a day after the US and Israel began launching airstrikes on Iran, but also a long way away from the conflict, in Australia. On Day 2 of the tournament, on Monday, all eyes were on the Iranian team, one of 12 taking part…

Skip next section Shirt and blouse maker Eterna to close after rescue bid fails03/03/2026March 3, 2026Shirt and blouse maker Eterna to close after rescue bid fails’Everything must go,’ as the old saying goes — Eterna’s stores have been running closing sales all winter since December’s insolvency applicationImage: Ardan Fuessmann/Eibner-Pressefoto/picture allianceFounded in 1863, Eterna ultimately could not stand the lofty test of time its name set for itself.  The Passau-based company’s management announced on Tuesday that it would cease operations in the summer.  “Unfortunately, the continuation of Eterna’s business operations in Passau is ruled out,” the company’s management stated.  Despite efforts to save…

The US-Israel attack on Iran and Iran’s aggressive response have unnerved oil markets, with many analysts predicting a massive rise in oil prices.While Iran is responsible for just 3-4% of global oil output, its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, considered the world’s most critical oil chokepoint, is prompting oil analysts to raise their forecasts for future oil prices. A prolonged disruption to traffic in the strait, which carries around one-fifth of oil consumed globally as well as large quantities of gas, could see oil prices breach the $100-a-barrel threshold, a prospect that would hurt the global economy and push…

March 3 marks 100 days until the 2026 World Cup kicks off. A series of playoffs this month will determine the last six teams to make up the newly expanded 48-team tournament. But with the US and Israeli attacks on Iran and Iran’s retaliatory strikes in the Middle East, one of those playoff contenders — likely Iran’s neighbors Iraq — may replace Iran, who qualified a year ago. “It’s not possible to say exactly, but there will certainly ​be a response,” Iran Football Federation President, Mehdi Taj, said on Monday on  Iran’s IRIB Channel 3. “This will surely be studied by…

It sounds like the plot of a screenplay, but it happened to two Berlin film students in real life.  Moritz Henneberg and Julius Drost had created an animated short film for their final project at university. “Butty” tells the tale of a household robot that gets kicked out when it can’t do its job properly. When the two filmmakers posted the work on YouTube, this touching tale quickly went viral. After generating a huge amount of hits, the duo decided to submit their work to festivals — but they were in for a shock: Organizers told them the film had already been submitted under a different name.  How could that have…

Components from German manufacturers have been found in Russian drones attacking Ukrainian cities. German media reported on this in January, citing the latest Geran-5 attack drone in particular. The television broadcaster ntv and later other German media reported that transistors made by the German company Infineon Technologies were found in a Geran-5, along with other foreign-made components. The information had been published on a web portal called War and Sanctions, which is run by Ukraine’s military intelligence service HUR. It includes a detailed list of all foreign components found to date in Russian military equipment. According to the War and Sanctions website, the majority of foreign…