Author: DW

France says it has foiled an attack targeting one of the football stadiums being used for this summer’s Olympic Games.The country’s security forces arrested an 18-year-old from Chechnya earlier this month in the southeastern city of Saint-Etienne, interior minister Gerald Darmanin said. According to investigators, the man was preparing an attack on the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium in Saint-Etienne.He planned to target spectators and police forces in order to “die and become a martyr”, the minister’s statement added.The Paris Olympics will take place between 26 July and 11 August, and will be held under heavy security. President Emmanuel Macron has said the…

Alexander Zverev’s assault trial has opened at the Berlin criminal court, with his legal team attacking the charges as “unfounded” and painting the alleged victim, Zverev’s ex-girlfriend, as someone motivated by fame and money, interested only in her follower count on social media. Zverev, the reigning Olympic tennis champion, is accused of “physically abusing a woman and damaging her health during an argument.” The woman is also the mother of his child.  Opening the trial, Philipp Zündorf, the public prosecutor, read out the charge in full. He said the alleged incident occurred at a rented Airbnb apartment in Berlin’s Charlottenburg district, between…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Stockholm Friday to meet with the leaders of Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Finland and Norway. “Today I am in Stockholm for the third Ukraine-Northern Europe summit,” Zelenskyy wrote in a social media post, adding, “Our top priorities are to ensure more air defense systems for Ukraine, joint defense industry projects, and weapons for our warriors, as well as global efforts to force Russia to make peace.” “Ukraine will grow stronger as a result of the support of our principled and consistent allies, as well as new security agreements,” wrote Zelenskyy on Friday. In February and…

Provisional election results show the country’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) party is in the lead with 41.8% of the total vote. As of 2 p.m. CET on Friday, approximately 66% of votes from around the country had been counted and verified. The final results are expected over the weekend. South Africa’s election took place on May 29, with polls officially closing at 9 p.m. local time.Although these are merely partial results as votes continue to be validated, many analysts are predicting the ANC, which currently rules the country, will not hold the majority in parliament for the first time in 30…

Police have shot a knifeman who injured several people in an attack at a far-right demonstration in the German city of Mannheim.It happened in the southwestern city’s market square shortly after 11.30am local time. “A firearm was used against the attacker,” police said in a statement.German news site Bild showed a video in which the knifeman is shot as he stabs a police officer in the neck from behind.The officer was bent over and appeared to be helping another person at the time. Image: Pic: AP Moments before, the video shows the attacker wrestling with a man on the ground…

The men’s UEFA Champions League final is the most watched annual sporting event on the planet. Around 450 million football fans are expected to tune in on Saturday as record winners Real Madrid face Borussia Dortmund — a team even their own supporters never expected to get this far. The contrast between the 14-times champions Madrid and a Dortmund team who have won it just once — back in 1997 — extends to the coaches. Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti, 64, has lifted the famous trophy twice as a player and four times as a manager. He has coached fellow European heavyweights such as…

After an assassination attempt put Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico in hospital for over two weeks, the 59-year-old politician is now continuing his recovery at home. The head of the clinic in Slovakia’s Banska Bystrica, Miriam Lapunikova, confirmed on Friday morning that Fico had been released. “I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank him for being a disciplined patient,” Lapunikova said, according to a post published by the hospital on social media. Lapunikova previously said Fico expressed wishes to receive nursing care at home. Police were deployed in front of Fico’s apartment in Bratislava, Slovakian national broadcaster RTVS reported.…

Many European consumers today find themselves having to replace broken household appliances, such as hand-held mixers or white goods like fridges and dishwashers, even though they are technically fixable. This is because spare parts are often either prohibitively expensive or simply unavailable. Additionally, some products are designed in ways that complicate or prevent repairs altogether. Ian Williams from the University of Southampton says many manufacturers are “deliberately” building products that are “designed for replacement, not repair.” Rüdiger Kühr, head of the United Nations’ Sustainable Cycles Programme (SCYCLES), also thinks that “some prominent brands are trying to avoid repairs altogether, or easy repairs, because they…

Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican Party nominee for the November 2024 US presidential election, is no stranger to the courtroom. In January 2024, a jury in New York ruled that he would have to pay writer E. Jean Carroll millions of dollars in damages for sexually abusing and then defaming her, a decision that Trump is appealing. That was a civil case. Now, Trump has become the first former US president to be convicted of criminal charges. The case centerd on whether he paid hush money to bury stories about an alleged extramarital sexual encounter with a porn star to protect his 2016 campaign for the White House.…

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has been released from hospital after he was shot in an assassination attempt.Mr Fico, 59, was shot at close range as he greeted supporters at a government meeting in the central Slovak town of Handlova on 15 May. The attack left him in a serious condition and needing a five-hour operation. He underwent surgery again two days later.Miriam Lapunikova, the director of the clinic in the central city of Banska Bystrica, said Mr Fico was taken to his home, where he continues to recover from the attack.In recent days, the hospital said Mr Fico’s condition…