Author: DW

Relations between the US and Europe are currently under considerable strain. In response to this, the Goethe-Institut USA is launching a campaign called “Among Friends — Unter Freunden,” which aims to encourage German-American dialog. The program kicks off with a reading tour by two young authors who’ll be traveling across the US for four weeks, from New York to Texas, sometimes venturing beyond the Goethe-Institut’s offices to more quirky locations. In Washington, for example, Sonali Beher and Iven Yorick Fenker will be appearing in a pizzeria, while in West Chester, Pennsylvania, they’ll be reading in a huge antique bookshop in a former barn. Beher,…

In a tech-world irony, artificial intelligence (AI) seems to have come to the rescue of Silicon Valley old-guard firm Google and its Chrome web browser. About a year ago, the future of Google looked shaky. In the biggest antitrust challenge it ever faced, a US court in Washington, DC, found that it illegally monopolized the search market with huge payments to other companies to ensure its search engine was the default option, which effectively blocked other competitors. With this ruling, the US Department of Justice wanted to force Google to sell its lucrative Chrome browser or Android operating system. Many commentators foresaw the end…

Thailand’s top court ruled on Tuesday that ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra did not serve his 2023 jail term properly, ordering him to serve one year in prison. “Sending him to hospital was not legal, the defendant knows his sickness was not an urgent matter, and staying in hospital cannot count as a prison term,” said the ruling read out by a judge. In its ruling, the court has issued a warrant to take Thaksin to Bangkok Remand Prison to begin serving a one-year term. The court was probing whether officials had mishandled his return to Thailand in 2023 and served time for a corruption conviction. Thaksin…

How many people died building Ethiopia’s dam? An Ethiopian magazine caused a stir after it reported that at least 15,000 people may have diedduring the construction of the nearly $5 billion (€4.2 billion) Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) over 14 years. In an interview with DW, Ethiopian Water and Energy Minister Habtamu Itefa would neither confirm nor deny the claims. “On the point about the numbers that are being quoted, the question is wrong, and the answer is also wrong. For information on this, you have to go to relevant institutions,” Itefa told DW.  Reported deaths include engineers and workers, security forces, drivers and…

Relations between the US and Europe are currently under considerable strain. In response to this, the Goethe-Institut USA is launching a campaign called “Among Friends — Unter Freunden,” which aims to encourage German-American dialog. The program kicks off with a reading tour by two young authors who’ll be traveling across the US for four weeks, from New York to Texas, sometimes venturing beyond the Goethe-Institut’s offices to more quirky locations. In Washington, for example, Sonali Beher and Iven Yorick Fenker will be appearing in a pizzeria, while in West Chester, Pennsylvania, they’ll be reading in a huge antique bookshop in a former barn. Beher,…

For decades, US firms have enjoyed a strong foothold in Germany, particularly in the country’s western regions that were under the control of the Western Allies after World War II. In the immediate postwar years, US cigarettes were so highly prized on the German black market that they effectively served as currency. Sports stars often played a role in cementing trans-Atlantic brand power. Former heavyweight boxing champion Max Schmeling, seen by many US citizens as a “good German,” went on to represent Coca-Cola in Germany after his career in the ring. Decades later, East German boxing champion Henry Maske ran McDonald’s franchises…

After the debacle of Bratislava to start off Germany’s 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign, Julian Nagelsmann’s woes continued at home in Cologne. A much-changed Germany side squeezed past Northern Ireland with a 3-1 win. The result was one of pure relief for Germany as they continue their road to the USA, Canada and Mexico. Here are the key takeaways from Germany’s win in Cologne. Nagelsmann gets emotional response Julian Nagelsmann had lamented his side’s lack of emotional investment in Slovakia, saying he had to “find the right players for the situation” moving forward. He made five changes to his starting eleven,…

An Italian teenager who died of leukaemia in 2006 at the age of 15 was on Sunday proclaimed a saint of the Catholic Church, becoming the first millennial to be canonized. London-born Carlo Acutis, dubbed “God’s influencer” due to his use of the internet and social media to spread the faith during his short lifetime, was canonized by Pope Leo XIV in a ceremony in St Peter’s Square attended by tens of thousands of people, including his family. Pier Giorgio Frassati, a young Italian mountaineering enthusiast who passed away from polio in 1925, aged 24, was also made a saint.…

Tens of thousands of supporters of the former president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, rallied across the country on Sunday. The mass gatherings occurred just days before a Supreme Court ruling in Bolsonaro’s trial over an alleged coup attempt. At a rally on Sao Paulo’s Avenida Paulista amid Brazil’s Independence Day festivities, demonstrators demanded amnesty for those involved in the January 8, 2023 storming of government buildings in the capital, Brasília. Sao Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas, a Bolsonaro ally, criticized Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, a common target of the right wing in Brazil. “No one can endure the tyranny of a judge like Moraes any longer.…

US independent director Jim Jarmusch clinched the coveted Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in Italy on Saturday. “Thank you for appreciating our quiet film,” said the 72-year-old while accepting the award. Jarmusch’s “Father Mother Sister Brother” starring Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver, and Tom Waits is a comedy-drama anthology film that explores the complex relationships between adult children and their distant parents. “Father Mother Sister Brother” is the first Jarmusch film to compete at the Venice Film Festival. Several past recipients of the esteemed Golden Lion award, including “Nomadland” and “Joker,” have gone on to achieve Oscar success. ‘The Voice…