Author: DW

Rescue efforts are under way to save a killer whale stranded in a remote tidal lagoon off Canada’s Vancouver Island.The young orca calf will be airlifted by rescuers with the hope of reuniting the two-year-old with its extended family, according to Canadian authorities. Canada’s fisheries department and First Nations officials said there are plans in place to put the calf in a sling to be lifted out of the lagoon by helicopter.The young whale will then be put in a net pen in the ocean while awaiting a reunion with its extended family.Ehattesaht First Nation council, fisheries department officials and…

A 7.2 magnitude earthquakecentered off Taiwan’s eastern coast on Wednesday morning was widely felt throughout the island, and was followed by over a hundred aftershocks throughout the day.  “I thought I was going to die,” recounted a 30-year-old Taipei resident to DW, describing the fear she experienced as her apartment was violently shaken. An elementary school teacher in New Taipei City said she was with her pupils on the playground when the ground started to shake. “It was the first time I felt the entire crust behaving like a spring,” she told DW. As of Thursday morning, authorities said there have…

Legacy chips, used in everything from washing machines to cars and TVs to medical devices, may not be as powerful as the state-of-the-art semiconductors that power artificial intelligence (AI) platforms. But they’re a growing headache for the United States and European Union due to China’s market dominance. Washington has already blocked Chinese firms from accessing Western-designed cutting-edge chips in the hope of delaying Beijing’s ambition of becoming a technology superpower. Attention has now turned to so-called legacy chips, of which China currently has close to a third of the world’s manufacturing capacity.  Faced with limited access to the more advanced chips, Beijing has sharply stepped up investments in the production of mature chip…

The world’s oldest man has died at the age of 114, just under two months before his 115th birthday.Juan Vicente Perez, from Venezuela, was confirmed to be the world’s oldest living man by Guinness World Records when he was aged 112 years and 253 days as of 4 February 2022. He attributed his longevity to “working hard, resting on holidays, going to bed early, drinking a glass of aguardiente [a strong liquor] every day, loving God, and always carrying him in his heart”. Image: Mr Perez celebrating his 113th birthday. Pics: AP Born on 27 May 1909, Mr Perez was…

Ernest Hemingway famously said: “While it’s important to have an end to journey towards, it is the journey that matters, in the end.” But then again, Hemingway didn’t quite have the kind of modern, jet-setting lifestyle that many people have become used to. Air travel is more popular than ever, and is projected to almost double from 3.7 billion global air passengers in 2016 to 7.2 billion in 2035. But it is also killing the environment: Aviation accounts for around 2% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.  So instead of having yet another hypothetical discussion about how we all ought to fly less, I…

Skip next section Kyiv needs Patriots: Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba04/04/2024April 4, 2024Kyiv needs Patriots: Ukrainian Foreign Minister KulebaUkrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has told the NATO summit that his country needs more US-made Patriot surface-to-air missiles to ward off attacks by Russian ballistic missiles. “I don’t want to spoil the party,” Dmytro Kuleba said after congratulating NATO members on the alliance’s 75th anniversary. “But my main message today will be Patriots.” “Saving Ukrainian lives, saving the Ukrainian economy, saving Ukrainian cities, depends on the availability of Patriots and other air defense systems in Ukraine. We’re talking about Patriots because it’s the only system…

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 Mumuni’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 more than $1…

In hyperpartisan Washington, DC, there has long been one policy point that Democrats and Republicans could agree on: the sacrosanctity of the US-Israeli relationship. Power has oscillated between the two parties over the decades, but commitment to Israel has not. Leaders from both parties have stuck to the refrain that Israel has no closer ally than the United States and that  the country’s security is nonnegotiable. Since 1948, Israel has received nearly $300 billion (€280 billion) in assistance from the United States, most of that for military means, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. That’s about double the aid to…

Terrified passengers have leapt into the sea to escape a fire on a night ferry travelling to a popular tourist destination off the coast of Thailand.The vessel from Surat Thani province was about to arrive at Koh Tao when a passenger suddenly heard a crackling sound and smelt smoke. Maitree Promjampa said he saw billowing smoke and fire less than five minutes later, and that was when people started shouting and raised the alarm.”We could barely get the life vests in time,” he told the Associated Press news agency.”It was chaotic. People were weeping.” Image: The ferry was on its…

Banda Khel, Afghanistan, April 4, 2014. Anja Niedringhaus texts “I am happy” to her best friend, the photographer Muhammed Muheisen. That day, one of her photos appeared on the front page of the New York Times. Niedringhaus is traveling through the eastern Afghan province of Khost, along with a friend, the Canadian reporter Kathy Gannon. The two journalists are an experienced team, reporting on the presidential elections in Afghanistan for the US news agency Associated Press.Anja Niedringhaus (in a photo from 2005) focused on the people affected by warImage: Peter Dejong/AP Photo/picture alliance Their trip has been well-prepared and is…