Author: DW

Mozambique’s military is battling a major Islamist attack in the town of Macomia in northern Mozambique, according to President Filipe Nyusi. “Macomia is under attack since this morning. Fire exchange still continues,” Nyusi said in a televised address on Friday, adding that the militants initially withdrew after about 45 minutes of fighting, but then regrouped and came back. Macomia lies in the gas-rich province of Cabo Delgado, where Islamic State-linked militants launched an insurgency in 2017. What do we know about the attack? Local media reported that hundreds of militants took part in the Friday attack. The attack appeared to…

Hundreds of protesters wanting to stop the expansion of a Tesla factory near Germany’s capital of Berlin were blocked by police as they attempted to storm the site.Crowds of demonstrators gathered near the Grunheide factory, Tesla’s only European production base, on Friday carrying banners complaining about water consumption at the plant and advocating for public transport over private cars. The protests against water consumption and the felling of trees to make way for a planned expansion of the factory have been ongoing since February, with demonstrations taking place in a forest near the site.Several people were temporarily detained, German news…

The idea of talking to animals has fascinated humans for millennia. Stories are full of talking animals, like the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland or talking lambs, wolves, asses and lions in Aesop’s fables. But the communication wasn’t always for good — it’s a talking serpent in the Book of Genesis which tempts Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. In the real world, scientists are getting ever closer to understanding animal communication, if not talking back to them. And the one species we might soon understand is the sperm whale. Scientists have spent years recording sperm whales, trying to…

The tide in German women’s football had appeared to be turning. Bayern Munich had wrapped up a second successive Bundesliga title the weekend before the cup final, with big names like Pernille Harder and Georgia Stanway helping them ease away from perennial powerhouses, Wolfsburg. But goals from Jule Brand and Dominique Janssen saw the She Wolves win the German Cup for the 10th time in a row on Thursday in front of a sold-out crowd of about 44,000 in Cologne. Having lost 4-0 and 2-1 to the big-spending Bavarians in the league, Wolfsburg’s veteran captain Alexandra Popp admitted to feeling “extremely…

Chinese President Xi Jinping concluded a high-profile European tour on Friday amid concerns in Europe over Chinese support for Russia’s war in Ukraine and European markets being flooded with cheap Chinese electric vehicles. Xi’s first visit to the region since 2019 also comes amid growing suspicions that China is seeking to take advantage of divisions in Europe. And analysts pointed out that Xi’s itinerary was no coincidence. Bertram Lang, a research associate at Goethe University in Frankfurt who specializes in China’s foreign policy, said that the countries on Xi’s tour — France, Serbia and Hungary — all have “special bilateral relationships” with Beijing. Lang added that the Chinese…

For much of the past two years, the global price of copper languished in the doldrums, barely fluctuating around the level of $8,500 (€7,890) for a ton, and being largely ignored by commodities traders. Since last month though, the metal is back in the focus of investors after surging to a fresh 2-year high of $10,110 at the London Metal Exchange (LME) on April 30. “Index funds, exchange-traded funds, etc, are attracting retail money into metals. Momentum-based buying is pulling them up; selling resistance remains low,” Sandeep Daga, a director at metals analysis company Metal Intelligence Centre, told news agency Reuters. He…

Two environmental activists in their 80s attacked on Friday the casing of the historic Magna Carta document at London’s British Library, causing damage to the glass case but leaving the document unscathed. Anglican priest Sue Parfitt, 82, and retired teacher Judy Bruce, 85, hammered on the glass case then glued themselves to it, the environmental group Just Stop Oil said. They also held a sign which read: “The government is breaking the law.” How did the activists justify the attack? In a statement released by Just Stop Oil, Parfitt said Magna Carta was “rightly revered, being of great importance to…

The Netherlands’ Eurovision entry Joost Klein is under investigation by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) due to an unexplained “incident” – and will not be rehearsing again until “further notice”.The Dutch singer missed his slot in the show’s penultimate dress rehearsal in Malmo, Sweden, on Friday, where he had been due to perform his track Europapa in fifth place ahead of Israel’s Eden Golan with her song Hurricane. It is not yet clear if Klein will be performing in Saturday’s grand final.The EBU said in a statement: “We are currently investigating an incident that was reported to us involving the…

Elyanna does not like to be put in a box. It’s something the Palestinian-Chilean singer has underlined repeatedly in interviews. Yet despite her dislike of labels, she’s currently earning herself one: the young Arab music sensation bringing Arabic-language pop to the global mainstream while challenging perceptions. Ironically, the 22-year-old never planned to sing in Arabic, her native language; she simply tried it out upon suggestion in a recording studio, as she told the Los Angeles Times in 2022. Her decision to embrace the language has paid off: Her first single, “Ana Lahale” (“I’m my own”), released in 2020, has more than 24…

India’s Supreme Court on Friday ordered jailed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the key leader of an alliance opposed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to be released on bail so that he can campaign in ongoing general elections. Kejriwal has been in pre-trial detention since April 1, having been arrested on March 21 by India’s financial crime investigation agency on corruption allegations. The government-controlled agency accused Kejriwal’s party and ministers of accepting 1 billion rupees ($12 million) in bribes from liquor contractors nearly two years ago.  Accusations of political meddling Modi’s government has denied having lent on the agency, the so-called Enforcement Directorate, to…