Author: DW

People with autism are the best at describing their situation. They see autism from a different — their own — perspective, just like Ricky Zehrer does. “Autism is defined as a profound development disorder, but it isn’t that at all,” says Zehrer. “You have autism from birth. Your brain functions differently than a non-autistic person’s brain. For me, it’s a question of sensory perception and the way an autistic person filters their experiences.” Many autistic people are unable to filter their experiences, or that ability to filter is under-developed. The brain processes about 11 million sensory impressions per second. We’re conscious…

Our image of what it’s like to be autistic is mostly shaped by popular media, according to Cian O’Clery, director and co-creator of “Love on the Spectrum”, an Australian reality TV series about what dating can look like for adults with autism. “People might have seen Rain Man and they might think everybody on the spectrum can count cards, or people might have seen The Big Bang Theory and think that everyone on the [autism] spectrum is like Sheldon,” says Cian to DW.  Autistic people are not all the same There are many different signs of autism, and people don’t necessarily…

Last week, Saudi Arabia was chosen to chair the United Nations’ leading gender equality forum, the Commission on the Status of Women. Even before the choice was finalized, rights organizations were issuing warnings. Other countries “should oppose the candidacy of Saudi Arabia, which has an egregious women’s rights record,” the rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) wrote a week beforehand.  After the decision was made on March 28, they were even more upset. “Whoever is in the chair, which is now Saudi Arabia, is in a key position to influence the planning, the decisions, the taking stock, and looking ahead, in…

As night falls near the town of Tamale in northern Ghana, Rakiya Mumuni scrambles to find a candle. Once the single light is flickering in her small kitchen, Rakiya can begin cooking. “Sometimes we use our phones but because we were not aware [of a pending power outage], my phone is dead and I have to depend on this candle,” she told DW. There’s been an electricity outage in Rakiya’s Gumani neighborhood since morning, so she hasn’t been able to charge her cellphone.Even Ghana’s parliament had its lights turned off after the state electricity supplier said it was owed over $1 million…

US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke over the phone on Tuesday, marking their first conversation since November. The two leaders discussed Taiwan, artificial intelligence and security issues. The call comes ahead of weeks of high-level engagement between the two powers, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen expected to pay separate visits to China. What did Biden and Xi discuss? The White House said in a statement that the conversation was “candid and constructive” and that a variety of bilateral, regional and global issues were discussed. Biden reaffirmed the US’ long-standing…

Three British aid workers were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) has said. Nationals from Poland and Australia were also killed, as well as a dual citizen of the US and Canada – and a Palestinian who was driving the car they were all travelling in. The volunteers were employed by WCK, a non-governmental organisation which provides food for displaced Palestinians.It is believed the workers were helping to deliver aid that had arrived hours earlier on a ship from Cyprus at the time.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged that Israeli forces were responsible for…

1. A normal kiss burns 6.4 calories per minute. A passionate kiss can burn up to 20 calories per minute. That’s even more than swimming, which burns 12 calories in one minute, just like jumping rope. 2. Today, an average kiss lasts more than 12 seconds. In the 1980s, couples came up for air sooner than that: back then an average kiss lasted a mere 5.5 seconds. 3. Public kissing isn’t always allowed everywhere. It’s forbidden to kiss women in public on a Sunday in Michigan and Connecticut – these US states take the Day of the Lord quite seriously.…

The DW documentary “Reclaiming History — Colonialism and the Genocide in Rwanda” is the first to examine the role played by German and Belgian colonialism in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Rwandan director Samuel Ishimwe, whose parents were murdered in the genocide, sets out in search of the origins of the “racial hatred” between Tutsi and Hutu. The 86-minute documentary will be broadcast on DW’s worldwide linear program and available for streaming on DW Documentaries’ YouTube channels starting April 5, 2024. Sowing the seeds of hatred “If we speak the same language, share the same culture, same country,…

Inflation in Germany dropped in March, Germany’s statistics agency Destatis said on Monday. Consumer prices fell to 2.2% year-on-year, compared to 2.5% in February. This is the lowest inflation figure since April 2021, when it was 2%. The annual inflation rate in January of this year was 2.9%. The weakening of inflation has been buoyed by a decrease in energy prices. Energy became 2.7% cheaper in March despite the expiry of the energy price cap at the beginning of the year and the increase in the carbon price to €45 (48.36) per ton of CO2. Could the ECB cut interest…

The biggest democratic exercise in human history takes place across India in April and May. Close to 1 billion people are eligible to vote in parliamentary elections at more than 1 million polling stations stretching from the Himalayas to the Indian Ocean. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is seeking to extend his decade-long premiership, sounds bullish on one key issue: the economy. He and his ruling BJP party frequently talk about “Viksit Bharat 2047,” which translates as “Developed India 2047” — a pledge to make India a fully developed economy by its independence centenary. Yet there is a variety of views and…