Author: DW

Authorities in the United Kingdom have charged two men with criminal damage over the felling of the famous Sycamore Gap tree. The iconic sycamore had stood for hundreds of years beside a section of the Hadrian’s Wall UNESCO World Heritage Site in northeastern England. The tree was discovered cut down by the Northumberland National Park Authority in September 2023.Regrowing a piece of history: the Sycamore Gap TreeTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Much-loved ‘Robin Hood’ tree The two accused, aged 31 and 38, have also been charged with damaging…

Lord Cameron has appeared to rule out the Iranian regime’s military arm being proscribed as a terrorist group, as he wants to maintain diplomatic relations with Tehran.The foreign secretary explained the government’s stance in an appearance before the House of Lords International Relations and Defence Committee. Lord Cameron was asked about the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which carries out operations both inside and outside Iran.Politics latest: Potential contender hints she will standThis is reported to include capturing ships and launching missiles at Syria and Iraq, and the recent attacks against Israel. There have been calls for the UK to…

Reliable, cheap and low carbon — since coming into use over a hundred years ago, hydropower has become a vital clean energy source, today providing more electricity than all other renewables combined. But recent power shortages in Ecuador and Colombia have highlighted its vulnerability in the face of climate change.  A drought fueled by the El Nino weather phenomenon has reduced reservoir water levels in hydropower plants, which both countries rely on for most of their electricity. This has led Ecuador to declare a state of emergency and institute power cuts. In neighboring Colombia, water has been rationed in the…

“We definitely don’t want to win the ‘Wolfsburg Cup,’ as some people might call it. We want to win the [German] Cup, and then maybe we can name it something different this year.” Footballer Georgia Stanway is not fazed. The England midfielder has helped Bayern Munich to be on the verge of the first domestic double in club history. A German Cup final on May 9 against Wolfsburg, the standard setters in German women’s football and winners of the last nine straight cups, is not something the 25-year-old is concerned by. “We know that whenever we play Wolfsburg, we don’t know what…

A New York judge on Tuesday imposed a $9,000 (€8,396) fine on former US President Donald Trump for defying a gag order in his hush money trial. Trump was held in contempt for violating an order to refrain from publicly attacking witnesses, jurors or court staff. Trump fined for 9 violations The former president was fined $1,000 each for nine violations and was told to remove seven posts from his Truth Social account and two others from a campaign website by Tuesday afternoon. Trump was also warned that he could find himself behind bars if he continued to violate the gag…

It may be just a small little detail, but it may manage what the German government hasn’t been able to do in the past decade: Invest large-scale in infrastructure. Since 2011, the country’s so-called debt brake has put strict limits on how much fresh borrowing the government can raise annually. It was enshrined in the German constitution in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis. However, the limit on excessively raising sovereign debt has curtailed investments in schools, bridges, and the transition to more renewable energy. The law is contentious among the governing coalition of Social Democrats (SPD), the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) and the…

Estonia and Lithuania have accused Russia of jamming GPS signals in the Baltic region. “GPS interference in Estonian airspace by RF (the Russian Federation) has affected civil aviation in our region. In doing so Russia violates international regulations,” Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said on social media. Speaking to Estonian radio, Tsahkna claimed this was “a completely deliberate act” by Moscow. On Tuesday, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis also reported an uptick in Russian GPS interference. “This is part of Russia’s hostile activities, which have been carried out before, but now their intensification is being observed,” Landsbergis said. Russia has not…

The top UN court has ruled against Nicaragua’s request for an emergency order to stop Germany sending aid to Israel.Nicaragua is a long-time ally of the Palestinians and wanted the court to tell Germany to halt military exports and other aid.It claims their help is enabling genocide in Gaza and breaking humanitarian laws – something Germany denies.Gaza latest: Ceasefire deal ‘not far off’ – as US says Israel has tabled ‘extraordinarily generous’ proposalTuesday’s ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is about preliminary orders and the case could take years to resolve.However, the court did say it remained “deeply…

You may know the feeling. Your days are characterized by a dull haze of sameness. You want to connect with people, but even when you get the chance, you don’t feel happy enough to get out and meet them. You don’t want to bother friends with your issues — you don’t even think there is anyone you could turn to. Everyone else seems to be normal. You are convinced you are different. You feel lonely, and you feel it written in your face. But we all have lonely moments or periods and health experts know it, too. Health bodies in the UK, US…

A gunman stormed a mosque in western Afghanistan as worshippers were praying, killing six people and injuring another. The incident took place in the western Herat province’s Guzara district on Monday evening. The mosque was targeted due to serving the minority Shiite community, local residents and media reported. What do we know about the attack? Taliban Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani said that “an unknown armed person shot at civilian worshippers in a mosque.” “Six civilians were martyred and one civilian was injured,” he wrote on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, early Tuesday morning. Locals told the French AFP…