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…

A napkin that helped launch the career of football superstar Lionel Messi, is being put up for auction.The napkin, itself something of a legend in the world of football, served as an unusual contract to secure the Argentine prodigy’s move to Barcelona in 2000. Potential bidders will face a starting price of £300,000 for the piece of football history and have until 17 May to make an online offer with auctioneers Bonhams. Image: The napkin that detailed Messi’s first Barcelona contract is up for sale. Pic: PA Messi, then 13, had been on trial with Barcelona in September of that…

The “Beethoven Frieze” by artist Gustav Klimt is one Austria’s most valuable cultural treasures. Every year, thousands of visitors from around the globe enter Vienna’s Secession building to contemplate the work. In 2004, it was chosen as the main motif for Austria’s 100-euro gold and silver commemorative coins. In 2013, the heirs of the Lederer family, who had owned the frieze before it was looted by the Nazis, demanded its restitution, adding an unexpected chapter to the work’s contentious past. “It was inconceivable for people that there could be a claim for the frieze,” says Austrian provenance researcher Sophie Lillie. Read more:Vienna marks…

Perhaps it’s a coincidence that China’s head of state, Xi Jinping, arrived in Belgrade on May 7. Or perhaps the date was chosen deliberately. May 7 is the day NATO bombs hit the city’s Chinese Embassy in 1999, killing three Chinese journalists and injuring more than 20 others. The strike took place during the war in Kosovo, after the Western military alliance intervened — without a UN mandate — to stop crimes against ethnic Albanians. At the time, NATO said the embassy had been hit by mistake. China, however, has always doubted this explanation. In an op-ed for a Serbian newspaper on Tuesday, Xi wrote: “We must…

The boundary dispute between India and Nepal has heated up once again after the Nepali government last week announced a new currency note featuring a map that shows three border areas claimed by New Delhi. The dispute involves the territories of Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura, which are currently under Indian control. The new map adds 335 square kilometres (129 sq. miles) of land to Nepal, and the country’s central bank is expected to take up to a year to print and issue the new note. India’s Foreign Minister S Jaishankar slammed Nepal’s decision, saying it will not change the reality on…

A Texas lawyer was shot and killed outside a McDonald’s after trying to calm down an angry customer, police say.Jeffrey Limmer, 46, died after the incident in Houston on Saturday evening and his attacker fled the scene in a pickup truck. The customer was upset with employees over his order and demanded a refund. Mr Limmer tried to calm them down, according to local news outlet ABC13.Police say the fight went outside and Mr Limmer pushed the customer to the ground.The customer then went to his car and pulled out a gun and allegedly shot him before fleeing the scene,…

AstraZeneca has reportedly withdrawn its COVID-19 vaccine Vaxzevria, also known as Covishield, worldwide, citing commercial reasons for the decision. “As multiple, variant COVID-19 vaccines have since been developed, there is a surplus of available updated vaccines. This has led to a decline in demand for Vaxzevria, which is no longer being manufactured or supplied,” the company was quoted as saying by various media outlets. A document hosted by the European Medicines Agency website confirmed that Vaxzevria was no longer authorized in the region. In an email to DW, virologist Wolfgang Preiser said “the demand for SARS-CoV-2 vaccines is very low and unlikely to pick up significantly…

The young woman’s gaze is direct yet benign. A cloak richly decorated with flowers is wrapped around her shoulders, contrasting starkly with the painting’s red background.   For almost 100 years, “Portrait of Miss Lieser” was thought to have been lost. Then the work by Austrian Art Nouveau painter Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) suddenly appeared at an auction. “Miss Lieser” was painted during Klimt’s last creative period, shortly before the artist’s death. The artist’s signature is missing, which is why it is believed that he didn’t have time to finish the work before dying of a stroke. The Viennese auction house Im…

Berlin’s state minister for economy, energy and enterprise, Franziska Giffey of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), was injured in an attack at a library in the Rudow district of the German capital on Tuesday. Giffey, a former mayor of Berlin and an ex-federal minister, “briefly went to hospital for outpatient treatment for head and neck pain,” police and the Berlin prosecutor’s office said in a statement. Giffey was attacked at an event in a Berlin library on TuesdayImage: dts-Agentur/picture alliance What we know about the incident The attacker suddenly attacked Giffey “from behind with a bag filled with hard contents and hit her on…

A few years ago, the German professor of intellectual property law Tim Dornis was on sabbatical in California when the General-Secretary of the German Association for Intellectual Property Law (GRUR) contacted him. “He said, ‘We’re about to see a very important development in Geneva that we need to have a look at. Because it could be something groundbreaking’.” Geneva is home to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a United Nations agency that promotes and protects intellectual property (IP) across the world. IP Law deals with the legal protection and ownership rights for things people create with their minds, like inventions, art and…