Author: DW

The streets of Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, are packed with angry demonstrators calling to “end hardship now!” amid the West African country’s worst economic crisis in more than two decades. The protests kicked off on Tuesday after one of the country’s main unions, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), called for Nigerians to come out to the streets. ‘’There is suffering in the land, there is suffering for the workers, no worker can live on 30,000 naira ($18.40) minimum wage and over 150 million Nigerians are living below the poverty line,” NLC president Joe Ajaero told demonstrators.Tinubu has called for patience to allow his reforms to take effect,…

Seventy years after the Castle Bravo nuclear test took place on Bikini Atoll, Setsuko Shimomoto will travel to the Marshall Islands to take part in a memorial event for an atomic experiment that she believes killed her father. The test, on March 1, 1954, was significantly larger than what the scientists who developed the hydrogen bomb had anticipated. To this day, Castle Bravo remains the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated by the US military. The failure to anticipate the size of the blast, combined with strong winds in the central Pacific, meant that radioactive fallout fell across a vast swathe of…

Paul Pogba has been banned for four years over a doping offence – with the footballer arguing the verdict is “incorrect”.The former Manchester United midfielder, who is now contracted to Italian giants Juventus, had tested positive for abnormal levels of testosterone. This could potentially end his career at the top level, as he would be almost 35 by the time he’s allowed back on the pitch. Image: Paul Pogba was a star performer for France in the 2018 World Cup. Pic: Reuters In a statement, Pogba said: “I am sad, shocked and heartbroken that everything I have built in my…

When the 6,327-passenger cruise ship MSC Euribia took a four-day journey from Saint-Nazaire, France to Copenhagen last summer, MSC Cruises celebrated it as “the world’s first net zero-greenhouse gas emission cruise.” The Swiss company had dug deep into their pockets to finance the 400 tons of bio-liquefied natural gas for this highly publicized voyage. “This industry’s first climate-neutral cruise marks another important step on our path to zero emissions,” said Pierfrancesco Vago, executive chairman of the MSC Group’s cruise division. But was it really a sign of more environmentally-friendly times to come in the cruise industry or an expensive publicity stunt?…

Mali’s military leaders in mid-November recaptured the strategic northern town of Kidal from an alliance of predominantly Tuareg armed groups known as the Cadre Strategique Permanent, or Permanent Strategic Framework (CSP). The groups have long posed a major sovereignty issue for Mali’s ruling junta that seized power in a 2020 coup.  The West African nation has been plagued by violence since 2012, when Islamist militants linked to al-Qaeda and Islamic State hijacked an uprising by Tuareg groups who had complained of government neglect and sought autonomy for the desert region they call Azawad. The recapture of the key city has been a…

The DAX 40 is on a tear. For the sixth day in a row, Germany’s most important stock index, which tracks the performance of the 40 largest and most actively traded companies in Europe’s biggest economy, has hit a record high. The trend is a rare piece of positive money news out of Germany as of late. Last week, Germany’s economy minister revised the country’s growth expectations for 2024, lowering the forecast from 1.3% to 0.2%. “The fact that the global economic environment is unstable and global trade growth is historically low is a challenge for an export nation like…

The European Commission on Thursday formally approved the release of  €137 billion (about $148.3 billion) to Poland. The commission cut off funding to Poland in 2022 due to rule of law concerns. Poland could access some €76.5 billion in cohesion funds to help raise living standards in poorer EU member states. It will also get access to almost €60 billion from a post-COVID recovery fund. The latter still needs to be approved by EU member states. “Today we turn a page on the Rule Of Law issues [with Poland] as we recognize the important strides made by the government,” said…

Russia must be “properly protected” after the expansion of NATO to include Sweden and Finland, Vladimir Putin has said in an annual state-of-the-nation speech.NATO forces are “preparing to strike our territory”, he claimed, but he warned any such move – including sending troops to Ukraine – could trigger the use of nuclear weapons. He referenced an idea, floated by French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday, of NATO members sending ground troops to Ukraine – a suggestion rejected by the US, Germany and UK.Ukraine-Russia war: latest updates”(Western nations) must realise that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their…

What happens once every four years and can bring anything from unbridled joy to thoughts of inescapable curses? No, not the World Cup. A leap year, of course, and with it the day of February 29. Those born on this particular date — some five million people worldwide, known as Leaplings or Leapers — face the dilemma of choosing which day to celebrate their birthday on during non-leap years. But they can also look forward to a special milestone when the date actually appears in the calendar, as is the case in 2024. Wedding crashes In Ireland, February 29 is known as Bachelor’s…

Russian President Vladimir Putin was set to deliver his State of the Nation address on Thursday, less than three weeks before a presidential election. According to the state-owned TASS news agency, his annual speech to Russian lawmakers would take the “domestic political calendar” into account. Putin’s speech would be nationally televised and even screened in some cinemas.  What is Putin expected to say? He typically uses the annual address to send messages to both domestic and international audiences. The presidential election scheduled for March 15-17  is expected to focus on domestic issues, including the economy and social policy. All major…