Author: DW

This year’s Islamic Hajj pilgrimage — which starts on June 14 — will not only be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for some 2 million Muslims from around 180 countries who travel to Saudi Arabia, it will also be a physical challenge as temperatures will be above average. “The expected climate for Hajj this year will witness an increase in average temperatures of 1.5 to 2 degrees [Celsius] above normal in Mecca and Medina,” national meteorology center chief Ayman Ghulam said last week. For Mecca, which is at the heart of the five-day Hajj pilgrimage, the increase likely spells an average temperature of…

Flights were unable to take off and land at Majorca’s international airport on Wednesday because of flooding on its runways, following heavy rain that hit the popular Spanish holiday island.Water also streamed from the ceiling of the complex’s shopping area and leaked through windows, videos posted on X appeared to suggest. A weather station at the airport in the capital Palma recorded rainfall of nearly 5cm (2in) per hour, peaking at up to 9cm (3.5in) in less than an hour. X This content is provided by X, which may be using cookies and other technologies. To show you this content, we need…

Joe Biden’s son has been found guilty of illegally buying a gun after hiding his drug use.Hunter Biden, 54, was convicted of three firearm charges in the first criminal prosecution of a sitting US president’s offspring. Prosecutors had said he lied on a form when buying a Colt Cobra revolver in October 2018 by stating he was not a drug user or addict, despite a problem with crack cocaine.Hunter Biden latest as president’s son is found guilty Image: Hunter Biden and his wife Melissa Cohen Biden outside court. Pic: AP Mr Biden pleaded not guilty to felony charges that included…

A total of 24 European countries will be competing in the men’s Euro 2024 tournament and more than 650,000 foreign football fans are expected to visit Germany. It will be a once-in-a-lifetime event for many, but could quickly turn into a nightmare if you fall for fakes and scams online. Several social media postsand articlessuggest that football fans could face fines of thousands of euros if caught wearing counterfeit jerseys, citing “specific German laws to combat the spread of fake goods.” German footballer Christoph Kramer, a member of the 2014 World Cup-winning team, was recently spotted wearing a fake jersey of…

Some of South Africa’s major opposition parties have said they are considering a proposal by the African National Congress (ANC) to form a national unity government. The ANC won most of the seats in the country’s recent election. When announcing the proposal last week, ANC leader and current President Cyril Ramaphosa said banding together with a broad group of parties was the “best option” to move South Africa forward for the next five-year term. The ANC remains the biggest party in the National Assembly after winning 40% of the vote and gaining 159 of 400 seats in the National Assembly. However,…

President Joe Biden so often talks about “inflection points'”.He has repeatedly framed his own presidency through a series of global inflection points – era-defining moments in which he has tried to cast himself as the sober voice of calm leadership. His life story too has been defined by a series of personal and tragic inflection points which have shaped his political journey: the death of his first wife and baby daughter in a car crash in 1972, the death of his elder son Beau from cancer in 2015.Now, the criminal conviction of his son Hunter is without question another deeply…

A total of 24 European countries will be competing in the men’s Euro 2024 tournament and more than 650,000 foreign football fans are expected to visit Germany. It will be a once-in-a-lifetime event for many, but could quickly turn into a nightmare if you fall for fakes and scams online. Several social media postsand articlessuggest that football fans could face fines of thousands of euros if caught wearing counterfeit jerseys, citing “specific German laws to combat the spread of fake goods.” German footballer Christoph Kramer, a member of the 2014 World Cup-winning team, was recently spotted wearing a fake jersey of…

The top takeaway from the European Drug Report 2024 : Drug users in Europe are increasingly using more than one drug at the same time — a practice known as “polydrug” or “polysubstance” use. And synthetic opioids remain a top-level concern for drug monitoring and drug addiction agencies. These trends may or may not be voluntary as potent synthetic opioids are often being mis-sold or mixed with medicines and other drugs, and cannabis products are being adulterated with synthetic cannabinoids — so users don’t always know what they are taking. Polydrug use is the use of two or more psychoactive substances, licit…

Some of South Africa’s major opposition parties have said they are considering a proposal by the African National Congress (ANC) to form a national unity government. The ANC won most of the seats in the country’s recent election. When announcing the proposal last week, ANC leader and current President Cyril Ramaphosa said banding together with a broad group of parties was the “best option” to move South Africa forward for the next five-year term. The ANC remains the biggest party in the National Assembly after winning 40% of the vote and gaining 159 of 400 seats in the National Assembly. However,…

It is another moment without precedent for America. The son of a sitting president has been convicted on three felony counts in a federal court.Beyond the seriousness of the crime itself, the trial has lifted a lid on the layered struggles and tragedies of one family. It could be any number of American families – except it is the nation’s first family. At its heart, it is a story of addiction, loss and grief which led to a criminal conviction. But because it’s about the Bidens, it is also, inevitably, a story of politics and scandal. Image: Hunter Biden talks…