Author: DW

Pakistan wants to achieve economic growth of 3.6%, the country’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said on Wednesday while presenting his first budget to lawmakers. Aurangzeb emphasized the need to expand Pakistan’s tax base as a strategy to prevent overburdening existing taxpayers. The goal of his budget is to ensure equitable distribution of tax responsibilities while meeting revenue targets.  Aurangzeb also said inflation had dropped to 12% per year. Pakistan has been grappling with soaring inflation amid its worst economic crisis in decades. At one point in 2023, inflation went above 40%, sparking angry protests as Pakistanis struggled to afford essential…

Transnational cooperation between civil society organizations, media outlets, and the world’s largest technology companies is needed to effectively combat disinformation, according to a new analysis by non-profit think tank the Bertelsmann Foundation. “We need to be just as professional and coordinated as those who seek to do harm with their campaigns,” said Cathleen Berger, a senior expert on future technologies and sustainability at the foundation and one of the report’s co-authors. The analysis is based on discussions with more than 100 experts, academics, activists, and policymakers from more than 50 countries, she added. Globally, researchers report an increase in the…

Actor Henry Winkler has praised Irish firefighters after a blaze at his hotel led to him being unexpectedly evacuated from his room.A selfie shared by the 78-year-old Happy Days star on X, which showed him smiling alongside three firemen from Dublin Fire Brigade, quickly went viral. Winkler wrote alongside the photo: “Dublin’s finest does a great job when our hotel is evacuated on our first morning!”He’s best known for playing cool motorcycle rider Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli on the hit American sitcom, which was set in the 1950s, but filmed in the 1970s and 1980s. Image: Henry Winkler as ‘The Fonz’…

Four-time Champions League winner, four-time German champion — that’s almost as good as it gets. But former national team player Josephine Henning has left the pitch in favor of art. As artist in residence at Dortmund’s German Football Museum, she is now designing participatory art and creative workshops for the European Championship. The museum is bringing art and football together in a kind of friendly match: Titled “In Motion  — Art & Football,” the immersive show features paintings of 20th-century European art, as well as little-known or rarely seen images focusing on football. The immersive spatial experience includes 41 projectors, 45…

Borussia Dortmund head coach Edin Terzic has resigned. The 41-year-old had an up-and-down season as he led the Black and Yellows to the Champions League final but only managed a fifth-place finish in the Bundesliga. Announcing that his decision came after lengthy meetings with senior management, Terzic said in a statement: “I feel that the club’s new era should begin with a new man on the touchline.” Champions League run could not paper over cracks May’s 2-0 defeat by Real Madrid in the Champions League final at Wembley capped an otherwise poor season for Terzic and Dortmund. Despite the deep…

France’s major broadcasters were lining up behind an unmarked door on Wednesday to talk to Laure Lavalette, the French National Assembly deputy and spokesperson for the far-right National Rally (RN), outside her party’s headquarters near Paris’s political district. “France is on its knees,” she told the TF1 television network without missing a beat. Lavalette, who has represented Var, a conservative southeast French province, since 2022, was at ease and in demand. Her eurosceptic, anti-immigration party scored such a high result in the EU elections last week that pro-business, centrist President Emmanuel Macron immediately called snap legislative elections starting at the end of June.Eric Ciotti…

Funding Ukraine’s fightback against Russia’s invasion has gone from a must-do to a political hot potato in nearly two and a half years. The world has already committed €297 billion ($321 billion) in aid to Ukraine. But the country clearly needs more. In April, a $61 billion (€56 billion) aid package to Kyiv was finally approved by the United States Congress after months of infighting over whether the money could be better spent on domestic issues. Similar themes played up during last weekend’s EU election, which saw the bloc shift towards the hard right. The US and European Union have also struggled to agree on what…

As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to Italy as a guest at the G7 leaders’ summit kicking off today, support for Ukraine is high on the agenda for leaders of the world’s most advanced economies. The war has drawn scrutiny to Moscow’s close ties with India, as Kyiv’s Western partners urge New Delhi to condemn the invasion and put pressure on Russia. While in Italy, Modi is also expected to discuss the issue with US President Joe Biden, although the meeting at the sidelines of the G7 summit has yet to be confirmed. Modi is also facing a changed political…

BTS star Jin, who has been discharged from his mandatory service in the South Korean military, is celebrating his freedom by hugging 1,000 fans.The 31-year-old K-pop star, who is the eldest member of the seven-piece band, is the first to complete his service. Image: Pic: Yonhap /Reuters He left the 5th Army Infantry Division in Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi Province, on Wednesday and was greeted by fellow BTS members J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V and Jungkook.They had applied for special leave to attend, according to South Korean media. BTS member Suga was absent from the occasion according to the Associated Press.The singers hugged…

Travel-related cases of dengue, like travel-related cases of malaria, are not uncommon in Europe. People get home from a trip to a hotspot, they come down with dengue, rest for a few days and then get back to their normal lives. Problems arise when dengue-infected individuals find themselves in a statistically unlikely situation: the weather in their home country is warm, they live in an urban area, or they get bitten — at home — by an Aedes mosquito, which then carries the dengue virus to another person. The chance of all these circumstances coming together in Europe is very low. Cases of locally transmitted…