Author: DW

The European Commission on Wednesday said it approved German national carrier Lufthansa’s plans to acquire joint control of Italy’s ITA Airways for €325 million ($349.6 million). “The approval is conditional upon full compliance with the remedies offered by Lufthansa” as well as by the Italian Economy and Finance Ministry, the Commission said in a statement. “Whilst ITA is performing well today, ITA’s long-term sustainability as a stand-alone carrier would have remained highly uncertain absent the transaction,” the Commission added. Competition concerns assessed Margrethe Vestager, the Commission’s executive vice-president in charge of competition policy, said concerns over whether the acquisition would negatively affect…

After the first debate between US President Joe Biden and his presumptive challenger Donald Trump last Thursday night, it’s no exaggeration to say that the liberal-leaning part of the country was in despair. Again and again throughout the night, Biden sounded frail and delivered sentences that made no sense. Social media users joked that Vice President Kamala Harris should be “subbed in” during commercial breaks, and that the debate resembled a humiliating family fight. Biden was not able to dispel voters’ concerns about his age during the first presidential debate on June 27Image: Mike Blake/REUTERS Since then, Biden has blamed his performance…

Vinod Kumar, 36, is inconsolable. He’s just identified the body of his wife and eight-year-old daughter at the district hospital in Hatras. “My world has crashed, I can’t find my mother, I don’t know where she is. I can’t even find her body. And no one is telling me anything,” he told Sky News. The family had travelled from their village in Mathura for Tuesday’s religious function by preacher Bhole Baba. Image: An injured person arrives in an ambulance at a local hospital. Pic: AP Vinod said his mother was a follower and had been to several of these “satsangs” -…

Reading the news about the recent stampede in India, where 121 people died on Tuesday at a Hindu religious gathering in Uttar Pradesh in northern India, you may wonder: How does something like that happen? What was going through the minds of the people in the crowd? How should you react if you find yourself in a similar situation? Officials have said little about any specific factors that caused the crush on Tuesday 2nd July. But crowd control experts have shared insights from studies on past stampede events.People mourns next to the body of a relative outside the Sikandrarao hospital in Hathras district.Image: Manoj Aligadi/AP/picture alliance   Probably not mass…

Euro 2024 tournament organizer UEFA on Wednesday said it was investigating  for “inappropriate behaviour” during Tuesday’s knockout game in Leipzig.  Turkish national football player Merih Demiral justified his controversial celebration gesture in the Euro 2024 round of 16 against Austria, saying it was an expression of national pride. After a goal on Tuesday evening in the Leipzig stadium, the 26-year-old made the so-called wolf salute with both hands, a hand sign and symbol of Turkey’s far-right “Gray Wolves.” The central defender became the unlikely goalscoring hero, putting his side ahead less than a minute after the match began and scoring a second…

Turkish national football player Merih Demiral justified his controversial celebration gesture in the Euro 2024 round of 16 against Austria, saying it was an expression of national pride. After a goal on Tuesday evening in the Leipzig stadium, the 26-year-old made the so-called wolf salute with both hands, a hand sign and symbol of Turkey’s far-right “Gray Wolves.” The central defender became the unlikely goalscoring hero, putting his side ahead less than a minute after the match began and scoring a second just before the hour mark. After the second, he made the gesture — with index and little finger raised…

BTS star Jin is going to be a torchbearer at the Olympic Games in Paris.The 31-year-old recently completed his mandatory 18 months of military service in South Korea. He’s set to spread a message of “harmony” and “peace” as he tours France. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 0:30 Team GB kit unveiled for Olympics The Olympic flame was lit in Greece and arrived in the host country last month. Now, it is travelling through more than 400 locations nationwide.It is covering a distance of about 7,500 miles (12,000km) over 69 days before arriving at the…

Joe Biden has said he “nearly fell asleep” during last week’s first presidential debate and put his poor performance down to travel exhaustion after going “around the world a couple of times” shortly before it.The US president, 81, said he “wasn’t very smart” for having travelled extensively in the weeks leading up to the event in Atlanta, where he performed so poorly that friends and foes alike have told him to quit the race for the White House. Image: Pic: AP Mr Biden told supporters at a campaign event in Virginia on Tuesday: “I decided to travel around the world…

Japan issued its first new banknotes in two decades on Wednesday. The new cash is fitted with 3-D hologram technology to curb counterfeits. The bills use printed patterns to generate holograms of the portraits facing different directions, depending on the angle of view. Japan’s National Printing Bureau, which is responsible for printing yen, claimed it is the world’s first for paper money. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida praised the “historic” state-of-the-art features of the new 10,000 yen, 5,000 yen and 1,000 yen notes. “I hope the people will like the new bills, and they will help energize the Japanese economy,” he told…

Taiwan has called on Beijing to release a fishing boat seized near the Kinmen islands off the coast of China. China considers the self-governing, democratic island of Taiwan to be part of its territory. China’s coast guard said in a statement that the boat was suspected of illegal fishing and was seized. The Kinmen islands are located 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the Chinese mainland but are administered by Taipei.The Kinmen islands are near the port of Xiamen in China’s southeastern Fujian provinceImage: Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images What do we know about the seized fishing boat? Taiwan’s coast guard said in…