Author: DW

Ramses II is documented as having been quite vain. But you can afford to be vain when you’re a pharaoh, the ruler and protector of Egypt, the intermediary between humans and the gods. After he died, Ramses II was embalmed and preserved for eternity — but that’s not the only reason his legacy was seared into the memory of future generations. “Ramses was a great king who was a warrior. He made many battles and was the first one to have a peace treaty,” explains Zahi Hawass, a renowned archaeologist and former antiquities minister of Egypt. “And he’s a builder —…

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday vowed to punish those responsible for the deaths of six people, including anti-government protesters, after student protests saw campuses shutter around the country. Six people were killed in clashes between police and protesters on Tuesday, which was the most violent day so far in weeks of protests regarding public sector job quotas for the children of freedom fighters who fought in the 1971 War of Independence. “I firmly declare that those who carried out murders, looting and violence — whoever they are — I will make sure they will be given the appropriate punishment,” Hasina said in…

The streets of Dakar, the capital of Senegal, are changing. They’re still packed with many cars, mopeds and even horse-drawn carriages which are stuck in the countless traffic jams. But in the north of the city of four million people, in the socially deprived Parcelles Assainies district, a traffic revolution is taking place. Just three months ago, it took residents an hour and a half to get to work or school in the city center. Now, it’s only half of that. The new fast lane for electric buses only skip the traffic jams and bring Senegalese to their destination quicker.Traffic in…

More than a dozen students have been taken to hospital after they became ill from eating extremely spicy crisps, reportedly given out by a fellow pupil “for fun”, officials in Japan have said.Rokugo Koka High School in Tokyo called for help on Tuesday lunchtime after 13 girls and one boy, all first-year students, complained of nausea, as well as stomach and mouth pain, Japan Today said, quoting the city’s fire department and local police. Other reports, including by the Asahi Shimbun, said 15 students were affected.All those taken ill are believed to have been conscious and to have had minor…

Russia and Ukraine have released a total of 190 captured soldiers in the latest prisoner exchange between the two sides, officials in Moscow and Kyiv have announced. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Russian Defense Ministry each said 95 of their soldiers had been freed after the United Arab Emirates acted as an intermediary. Zelenskyy said that the freed Ukrainian prisoners were members of the Ukrainian armed forces, the national guard and the border guard service. In his post on X, formerly Twitter, Zelenskyy thanked the United Arab Emirates for its help in facilitating the swap. Among the released Ukrainians were…

When Usha Vance, met her husband, JD Vance, at Yale Law School, the now US vice presidential candidate described her as his “spirit guide” at the prestigious institution. “She instinctively understood the questions I didn’t even know to ask, and she always encouraged me to seek opportunities that I didn’t know existed,” wrote JD Vance in his bestselling 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.” The couple were married in 2014 and were blessed by a Hindu priest in a separate ceremony. They have three children, two boys and a girl. Vance was born Usha Chilukuri in 1986 to Indian immigrants from the…

The mayor of Paris has swum in the Seine in an effort to prove its cleanliness for the Olympics outdoor swimming events – but questions remain about its quality.After months of anticipation, Anne Hidalgo took the plunge ahead of the Games starting next week. The mayor had originally planned to swim in the river last month but was forced to delay after tests indicated the presence of faecal matter was 10 times higher than authorised limits. Image: Pic: Reuters A century after swimming in the Seine was banned, French officials have been keen to prove their investment of €1.4bn to…

The Chinese owner of TikTok, ByteDance, on Wednesday lost its appeal against its categorization by the European Commission as a “digital gatekeeper.” The EU General Court in Luxembourg ruled that the designation was warranted under the European Union’s new Digital Markets Act (DMA) because short video app TikTok exceeded relevant thresholds including global market value and the number of EU users. Labeled companies are prevented from forcing users in the bloc to consent to have access to a service or certain functionalities. What did the EU court find? ByteDance had argued that its global market value largely came from China,…

When Usha Chilukuri Vance, met her husband, JD Vance, at Yale Law School, the now US vice-presidential candidate described her as his “spirit guide” at the prestigious institution. “She instinctively understood the questions I didn’t even know to ask, and she always encouraged me to seek opportunities that I didn’t know existed,” wrote Vance in his best-selling 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.” Born in 1986 to Indian immigrants from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, Chilukuri Vance grew up in an ethnically diverse San Diego suburb. Her father, Krish Chilukuri, is an aerospace engineer and university lecturer. Her mother, Lakshmi, is a professor of…

Adele has announced she will be taking a “big break” from music after her upcoming concerts, saying: “I don’t have any plans for new music at all.”The British singer, who has spent the past two years playing a weekend residency in Las Vegas, is performing in Europe next month for the first time since 2016. She has a 10-date string of gigs booked in Germany for August at Munich’s Messe exhibition centre, which boasts a capacity of 80,000.At the weekend, she posted images on Instagram of the set-up there, writing: “It’s all a bit bloody exciting.”Weekends With Adele launched at…