Author: DW

Greta Thunberg, the Swedish climate activist who inspired the “Fridays for Future” movement, was ordered to pay 6,000 Swedish crowns ($550, €512) by a Stockholm court on  Wednesday. Thunberg was accused of ignoring police orders to leave two protests in front of Sweden’s Parliament in March calling for action to be taken against climate change. What did Thunberg say in court? The activist was being charged with two counts of civil disobedience. She has denied the charges in court. She told the judge she refused to move because “there was a (climate) emergency and there still is. And in an emergency, we all…

It’s hard to overstate the importance of Victory Day in Russia, which marks the anniversary of the end of the Second World War.The patriotic fervour has been building for the past fortnight. Moscow has been coloured red with giant flags on almost every corner. Buses, rubbish lorries and even tractors bear some reference to 9 May.The day will see a huge military parade on Red Square, involving troops, tanks and missile launchers. This year, the 79th anniversary, is not exactly a major milestone – so why is it so big?I think it can be summed up by three Ps: pain,…

Bayern Munich were two minutes plus added time away from setting up a repeat of 2013’s all-German Champions League final at Wembley before two late goals from Real Madrid’s Joselu sent the Spanish giants through to face Borussia Dortmund instead. After enduring waves of Madrid pressure, Bayern took the lead against the run play through Alphonso Davies, who cut inside and fired an unstoppable shot past Andriy Lunin in the Madrid goal. It was almost the winner, but 14-times Champions League winners Real Madrid inevitably had other ideas. First, Manuel Neuer, who had pulled off a series of spectacular saves throughout the game,…

Porn star Stormy Daniels has described to jurors an awkward and unexpected sexual encounter she claims she had with Donald Trump in 2006.Ms Daniels was testifying at the former president’s criminal trial over hush money she was paid to keep silent about the alleged encounter during the presidential race. But it was not all bad news for Mr Trump. On the day the court heard from Ms Daniels, his trial in Florida on charges of illegally keeping classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence after leaving office, scheduled to start on 20 May, was postponed indefinitely by a federal judge.Ms Daniels,…

Pre-election polls and the outcome of the first round of the presidential election on April 24 indicate that a convincing victory is within reach for the opposition nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party in North Macedonia. Opposition candidate Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, a 70-year-old retired law professor, gathered twice as many votes as Stevo Pendarovski, North Macedonia’s incumbent president and candidate of the ruling Social Democrats, who received less than 20% — a mere 180,000 votes. Dissatisfied with the country’s stalled EU accession process, weak economy and pervasive corruption, many voters decided to support the opposition candidate in the first round of the presidential election,…

The mother of two Australian surfers allegedly shot dead by thieves in Mexico says “the world has become a darker place for us” after their deaths.The bodies of brothers Callum and Jake Robinson and American Jack Carter Rhoad were found south of Ensenada in northern Mexico last week, after the men went missing on the weekend of 27 April.The trio, who were on a surfing trip near the city, were shot dead by thieves who wanted their truck’s tyres, according to prosecutors, and their bodies dumped in a remote 15m-deep (50ft) well. Image: Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson with…

Vladimir Putin was sworn in for the fifth time as president of the Russian Federation in an official ceremony on Tuesday amid criticism from the West. The legality and manner of Putin’s reelection in presidential polls held March 15-17 was slammed by detractors, including EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell. “These elections were based on repressive laws, persecution of political opposition leaders, civil society representatives and journalists — including those opposing Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine,” Borrell said in a speech to the European Parliament in April. “They took place under a flood of disinformation, lack of access to independent media, and…

On Monday, one day ahead of the latest inauguration of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced plans for tactical nuclear weapons maneuvers close to the Ukrainian border in “the near future.” It would be the first time such exercises were held since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The ministry said the drills will be carried out by missile units from the aerial defense’s Southern Military District, with the participation of air and naval forces and aim to ” increase the readiness of nonstrategic nuclear forces.” That area spans not just accepted Russian territory but also Crimea, which was annexed in…

Independent US presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr has revealed that a worm ate part of his brain. It has emerged the 70-year-old made the claim during a 2012 interview, known as a deposition, in his divorce proceedings from his second wife Mary Richardson Kennedy. At the time, he said his earning power had been diminished by cognitive issues.He said he had been having memory loss and mental fogginess in 2010 and so contacted neurologists who spotted a dark spot on his brain scans. Image: Robert F Kennedy Jr with his second wife Mary Richardson Kennedy in February 2009. Pic:…

North Korea’s former propaganda chief, Kim Ki Nam, who is credited for his role in building personality cults around the country’s dynastic rulers, has died at the age of 94, according to state media reports. Kim Ki Nam had been receiving treatment since 2022 and died on Tuesday due to age-related illnesses and “multiple organ dysfunction,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited the body of Kim Ki Nam at a funeral hall in the capital, Pyongyang, paid his condolences to his family, and looked at the bier with “bitter grief over the loss of a veteran…