Author: DW

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has proposed military support for Ukraine worth €100 billion ($108 billion) over the next five years, according to multiple diplomats. The aim is to have an aid package finalized in time for a NATO summit which will be held in Washington in July. NATO members and aid for Ukraine The proposal is expected to be debated during a two-day meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels over Wednesday and Thursday. Stoltenberg will be chairing the talks at NATO headquarters. The push for more aid comes amid mounting concern that support for Ukraine’s defensive efforts against Russia’s invasion…

One of Jared Kushner’s planned ventures in the Balkans concerns the redevelopment of a site in Serbia’s capital Belgrade, negotiations for which were started a decade ago by his father-in-law. Two years before Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, he put his feelers out, telling Serbian authorities that he was interested in building a luxury hotel and apartment complex on the site of the former headquarters of the Yugoslav army, the General Staff building, destroyed in 1999 by NATO’s bombing campaigns. Although that project fell through, Kushner, who was a senior White House official during Trump’s tenure, has now reportedly reached…

Republicans in the US House of Representatives are seeking to name the Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia after the 45th president, Donald Trump.  We have now landed at ‘Donald J. Trump International Airport’  US Republican Representative Guy Reschenthaler of Pennsylvania said in an X post on Tuesday that Trump is the “best president of my lifetime” and that his leadership stood for freedom, prosperity and strength. Therefore, he was introducing legislation to rename Dulles as “Donald J. Trump International Airport.”      The short two-page bill, which was filed Friday, has also been co-sponsored by several other pro-Trump Republicans, such as Troy…

A rare macaque has been stolen during a raid on a zoo in Germany.Leipzig Zoo says the female lion-tailed macaque – named Ruma – was stolen from its cage during a “violent” overnight break-in. Police in Germany have launched an investigation.”We do not know what motive is behind the theft, but we are extremely concerned about the welfare of the animal, whose proper care requires expert knowledge,” the zoo said in a statement.”We very much hope that the animal will be secured unharmed or returned.” Police in the German state of Saxony, where Leipzig is located, said the burglary took…

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…