Author: DW

China’s military continued its war drills around Taiwan on Friday, testing their ability to “seize power” and control key areas, with Chinese naval vessels and military aircraft encircling the island. These drills were launched on Thursday in response to Taiwanese President William Lai Ching-te’s recent inauguration. China sees the self-ruled island as a part of its territory, and has not ruled out the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it had tracked 49 Chinese fighter jets, as well as 19 naval and coast guard vessels in a 24-hour period from Thursday to Friday. Of…

Kabosu, the dog behind the “doge” meme, has died at the age of 18 after enjoying more than a decade of internet fame.The Japanese shiba inu had been suffering from leukaemia and liver disease. “To all of you who loved Kabosu, on the morning of the 24 May, Kabosu crossed the rainbow bridge. Thank you all so much for your support over the years,” Atsuko Sato, her owner, wrote on Instagram.”She went very peacefully without suffering, as if falling asleep while feeling the warmth of my hands petting her.”Thank you all so much for loving Kabosu all these years. “I…

Kenyan President William Ruto met with US President Joe Biden  in the Oval Office where they spoke about Kenya joining a list of non-NATO US allies. Ruto’s three-day trip to Washington is the first state visit to the United States by an African leader in more than 15 years. Key announcements In a joint press briefing, Biden highlighted the 60 years of partnership between the US and Kenya. “I’m proud to announce we’re working with Congress to designate Kenya a major non-NATO ally,” Biden said, adding that it was a fulfillment of years of collaboration in joint counter-terrorism operations. Currently, 18 countries…

A building collapse on Spain’s Mediterranean island of Mallorca has left at least four people dead and injured 21 others. Emergency services said seven people were injured “very seriously” and nine were seriously injured when the roof of a restaurant collapsed. According to Spanish media, the incident took place at around 8:30 p.m. local time (1830 GMT) in the Playa de Palma area, south of the island’s capital, Palma de Mallorca. “I am closely following the consequences of the terrible collapse that occurred on the beach of Palma,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.  Sanchez said…

Four people have been killed and 27 are injured after a building collapsed on a beach in Majorca – with people still trapped inside. An area of the Medusa Beach Club in Palma collapsed at about 8.30pm local time.The area is popular with tourists.Pictures have emerged of emergency services evacuating people from the two-storey building, with some being taken out on stretchers as ambulances waited outside. Image: People are trapped in the building. Pic: AP Image: Pic: AP Image: Pic: AP Footage posted on social media shows crowds gathered outside the restaurant as emergency services go through wreckage.Marga Prohens, President…

In the winter of 2023, health experts across the European continent started noticing something weird. Cases of whooping cough, also known as pertussis, were rising.  And it wasn’t just happening in Europe. US health officials also began reporting a spike in whooping cough cases. And in the UK, case numbers had risen to their highest point in two decades.  By March 2024, cases had spiked higher in Europe than in the past decade (the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) did not release figures earlier than 2011). Some 32,000 cases were reported across Europe between January and March 2024. According to…

“This is my 33rd Cannes festival and it’s by far the worst I’ve ever seen,” a weary Australian critic moaned to me over coffee as we discussed the high- but mostly lowlights of the 77th Cannes Film Festival. This is “only” my 23rd time, but I had to agree that for the world’s most important film fest, 2024 has not been a banner year. On paper, the lineup looked good. New films from arthouse masters included David Cronenberg’s philosophical horror work “The Shrouds,” Paolo Sorrentino’s modern-day fable “Parthenope,” Yorgos Lanthimos’ star-studded “Kinds of Kindness,” and Paul Schrader’s Vietnam War-era drama “Oh, Canada.” Then there were the potential studio blockbusters from…

The UN General Assembly on Thursday voted to create an annual day of remembrance for the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, in which Serb forces killed around 8,000 Muslim men and teenage boys. The resolution designates July 11 as the International Day of Remembrance of the Srebrenica Genocide. It also condemns “any denial” of the genocide and urges UN member countries to “preserve the established facts.” The resolution was written by Germany and Rwanda — two countries synonymous with 20th-century genocides — but it has faced fierce opposition from Serbia. Although the draft resolution does not specifically mention Serbia as the perpetrator, some Serb leaders nevertheless fear…

Germans have been drinking coffee for almost four centuries now, with the beverage having gained wider popularity in the 19th century when consumption spread across all social classes. The beverage became deeply ingrained in German culture, leading to various coffee traditions and rituals, such as Kaffee und Kuchen — coffee and cake ­— in the afternoon. After World War II, the coveted beans were even the preferred contraband of smugglers from the neighboring Netherlands because the German coffee trade had largely collapsed with the end of Hitler’s Third Reich. It was not until the start of the so-called post-war economic miracle in the…

After a string of scandals and just two weeks out from EU elections, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has been ejected from the European Parliamentary group it shared with France’s Rassemblement National among others. “The Bureau of the Identity and Democracy Group in the European Parliament has decided today to exclude the German delegation, AfD, with immediate effect,” the political faction announced on Thursday. The decision comes after Maximilian Krah, the AfD lead candidate in next month’s poll, had to fire a senior staff member who was arrested on suspicion of spying for China. Krah’s own ties to both China and Russia…