Author: DW

Vietnam is undergoing what officials call an administrative “revolution,” part of a broader campaign to modernize the state, jumpstart economic growth, and consolidate political power in the hands of the Communist Party’s upper ranks. To Lam, the country’s new party chief, is spearheading the reforms. He took the helm following the death of his predecessor Nguyen Phu Trong last year. Of the reforms, Lam said: “If we want to have a healthy body, sometimes we must take bitter medicine and endure pain to remove tumors.” At the heart of this transformation is a sweeping plan to trim bureaucracy and reorganize the state.…

A car drove into a crowd of people in the southwestern German city of Stuttgart, killing one person and leaving several others injured, police said. After a preliminary investigation, Stuttgart Police said they believe it was a tragic traffic accident. The incident comes after a number of deadly car-ramming attacks in recent months have put the country on high alert. What we know about what happened People were waiting at a metro stop when a Mercedes G-Class luxury SUV came around the corner and drove into the crowd. Eight people were injured in the accident, three of whom were seriously injured. One…

Three children kept locked inside their home since 2021 have been rescued by Spanish police, according to local reports.Officers said they arrested a 53-year-old German man and a 48-year-old American woman in Oviedo, northeast Spain, on Monday. The three children – two eight-year-old twins and a 10-year-old – have been taken for medical evaluation and are now in government custody at a juvenile centre, according to Spanish outlet El Comercio.Another Spanish outlet, ABC, reported that the parents had been charged with domestic violence, habitual psychological abuse, and child abandonment.It added that the parents were being held in pretrial detention without…

Since Donald Trump has returned to power, Europe has been concerned about its reliance on the United States, and how it could potentially threaten European security. One such area under scrutiny is digital payments. The president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, has said she is alarmed.ECB chief Christine Lagarde pushes for greater European independence from US payments companiesImage: Hannelore Förster/IMAGO Lagarde told independent Irish radio broadcaster, NewsTalk, recently that Europe would need to “reduce vulnerabilities that arise from the current payment platform’s infrastructure being foreign-owned” and make sure there is a “European offer available — just in case.” For her, it…

Every first Monday of May, the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York city transform into fashion’s most extravagant — sometimes eyebrow-raising — runway. Officially known as the Costume Institute Benefit, the Met Gala isn’t just a parade of jaw-dropping outfits — it raises funds for the institute, which is the museum’s only curatorial department that must fund itself. The gala coincides with the opening of the institute’s annual fashion exhibition.  What began in 1948 as a modest midnight supper for New York’s elite, “fashion’s biggest night out,” has since evolved into a highly anticipated annual event with US Vogue’s Anna…

What significance did sport have for the Nazis? Sport played an important role for the National Socialists, although they did not speak of sport, but of physical education. Their primary goal was to promote health and performance for a productive national economy and ultimately to be fit for war.  Individual sport was relegated to the background in favor of the collective, the masses, the so-called national body, to which every German should contribute as an individual in the best possible way. True to Nazi ideology, it was always about strength and fortitude. “The weak must be hammered away,” begins a quote…

State governors from northeastern Nigeria called on the government on Thursday to put forward a new strategy to tackle an upsurge in Islamist militant attacks. The governors of Borno, Adamawa, Yobe, Gombe, Taraba and Bauchi took part in the 11th North-East Governors Forum (NEGF) amid renewed violence that left more than 100 people dead last month. Taraba state governor Agbu Kefas said in a closing statement, “The forum… calls for the armed forces, other security agencies and community leaders to reappraise their strategy in the counter-insurgency onslaught in the region.” Is the Islamist militant insurgency in Nigeria getting stronger? A…

On April 25, foreign ministers Therese Kayikwamba Wagner of the Democratic Republic of Congoand Olivier Nduhungirehe of Rwanda signed a memorandum of understanding in Washington in the presence of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “We are discussing how to build new regional economic value chains that link our countries, including with American private sector investment,” Nduhungirehe said.  The memorandum, or MoU, has opened the door to a definitive peace agreement, he added.  The target date is May 2, and Nduhungirehe’s Congolese counterpart Wagner spoke of a “beginning.” The US is largely responsible for the MoU coming about. The US State Departmentsays the agreement aims to end the conflict…

A British woman has officially become the oldest person in the world at the age of 115, according to the Guinness World Records.Ethel Caterham, who lives in a care home in Surrey, has taken the mantle at 115 years and 252 days, LongeviQuest confirmed. Image: Pic: Longeviquest It comes after the death on 30 April of the previous record holder, Inah Canabarro Lucas, who was a 116-year-old nun from Brazil.Mrs Caterham sets multiple records – including being the last living person to be born in 1909.She is also the youngest person to be named the oldest woman in the last…

When walking through the Boedo neighborhood in Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires you get to hear entirely different opinions about the country’s president Javier Milei. One is marked by optimism, the other comes from people who remain largely skeptic. Signs of disapproval are hard to miss. At a local store, a poster is hung up reading “No entry” and showing the pictures of President Milei and Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, who are clearly not welcome here. Not everyone in Argentina welcomes Milei’s radical reformsImage: Tobias Käufer/DW Yet just around the corner, construction workers hammer and lay bricks on a new apartment building —…