Author: DW

The man who gave rise to the “God particle” that helped explain how matter formed after the Big Bang, Peter Higgs, has died at age 94, the University of Edinburgh said Tuesday. The physicist gained global recognition in 2012, when he was awarded the Nobel prize, almost 50 years after Higgs predicted the existence of a new particle, which came to be known as the Higgs boson, or the “God particle.” The university where Higgs was an emeritus professor said he died Monday after a short illness. Higgs’ work helped scientists understand one of the most fundamental questions of how the universe was formed: how the Big…

Even though Poles will be electing local politicians on Sunday, the election will still be seen as a continuation of the long-standing duel between Poland’s two greatest political rivals: Donald Tusk and Jaroslaw Kaczynski. Last December, Tusk, the leader of the liberal Civic Platform (PO), succeeded in ousting Kaczynski’s national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party from government after eight years in power. He now heads the country’s center-left coalition government. But Kaczynski is far from admitting defeat: “We’ll go on fighting, because Poland is at stake,” he recently told the weekly magazine Sieci, adding that he did not want to be…

Claim: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has purchased Highgrove House, a mansion previously owned by King Charles and Queen Camilla, for £20 million (€23 million; $25 million). This claim appears on a website called “The London Crier”and in posts on X, formerly Twitter. This tweet has been viewed about 125,000 times. DW fact check: Fake. The official Highgrove House website makes no mention of the mansion’s saleImage: Chris Jackson/picture alliance / empicsThere is no evidence to support the claim and no established British media outlet has reported on the mansion’s sale. Likewise, the official Highgrove House websitemakes no mention of the house having changed hands. “Highgrove is the private residence of…

Athletics will become the first sport to introduce prize money at the Olympics this summer.World Athletics, the international athletics federation, says it will pay Olympic gold medal winners $50,000 (around £39,400) at the Paris games. The athletics governing body said it is setting aside $2.4m (£1.89m) to pay the gold medalists across 48 events at Paris’ track and field programme. Image: The UK’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson, the world heptathlon champion, could be in line for the payment. Pic: Reuters Relay teams will split the $50,000 between their members.Payments for silver and bronze medalists are planned to start from the 2028 Olympics…

Peter Higgs, the theoretical physicist and Nobel Laureate, who died April 8, 2024, was known for predicting the existence of a very special, fundamental element of the known universe: The God Particle. Or “Higgs boson.”  In 2013, Higgs and Francois Englert won the Physcis Nobel Prize for their work on the particle which was thought to be a key to explaining the universe. “After graduating from King’s College London in 1950, Peter was interested in doing a PhD in elementary particle physics,” recalled Sir David Wallace, who did his own PhD under Higgs in Edinburgh in the 1960s. “But Peter was advised against…

Local authorities in the Russian region of Orenburg urged residents to evacuate riverside areas on Friday. The region’s capital, also called Orenburg, lies 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) east of Moscow, near the border with Kazakhstan. A number of provinces in Siberia and along the Ural Mountains that divide Asia and Europe, as well as parts of Kazakhstan, have been grappling with flooding in recent days. Emergencies ministry personnel had helped around 3,500 people affected by flooding throughout Russia.Thousands of people have been affected by flooding in parts of Russia near the Ural mountain rangeImage: Russia Emergency Ministry/dpa/picture alliance Hundreds of…

Elon Musk has lambasted Alexandre de Moraes, one of the 10 judges on Brazil’s Supreme Court, for ordering X to block several accounts, including that of a blogger and two members of Congress. For a while now, Brazil’s Constitutional Court has been clamping down on so-called digital militias accused of spreading disinformation and vitriol online.  Musk, who owns X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, took aim at Moraes saying “this aggressive censorship appears to violate the law & will of the people of Brazil.” Musk followed up his post with an even stronger message on X: “This judge has…

Thousands of police have been drafted in for tonight’s Champions League games in Paris and Madrid amid the terror threat.Several posters emerged on social media alleging to be from the Al-Azaim Foundation – a media arm of an IS affiliate group. They called for attacks on the four Champions League quarter-final ties that are taking place this week.In response, security has been “considerably reinforced” in Paris ahead of tonight’s game, as thousands of officers were drafted in to help with the security operation in Madrid across both nights.Both European capitals host games today, with PSG playing Barcelona in Paris, and…

“There’s a lot said about Jews, there’s a lot written about Jews, but no one really knows anything about Jews,” says Mirna Funk. Speaking to DW, the 43-year-old Berlin journalist and writer said she did not grow up with Jewish traditions. But she’s since learned a lot about Jewish history and culture, and she’s summarized the most important lessons she’s gleaned in her new book, “Von Juden lernen” (Learning from Jews). The mission: to improve the world Mirna Funk is in the shower and struggling with life: There’s the war in Ukraine, not enough money in her bank account, no lover…

Peter Pellegrini of the left-wing nationalist Hlas-SD party has won Slovakia’s presidential election, official results showed. Pellegrini’s Hlas-SD is part of the ruling coalition, while opposition candidate Ivan Korcok is an independent. Pellegrini received 53.85% of the vote with ballots from over 98% of polling stations counted. Korcok garnered 46.14% of votes. Korcok conceded defeat and congratulated the winner. “I am honestly disappointed. But I’m an athlete, so I can respect even this result. I want to congratulate the winner,” Korcok said. “I want to express my belief that Peter Pellegrini will be independent and will act according to his own…