Author: DW

The British Museum sued a former curator on Tuesday, alleging that he stole hundreds of artifacts from its collections and offered them for sale online. Peter Higgs was fired last year in July after the museum discovered that more than 1,800 artifacts were stolen or missing. The museum, one of the most well-funded and famous galleries in the world, found itself at the eye of a storm after gold jewelry and semi-precious stones dating from the 15th century B.C. to the 19th century A.D. were declared stolen or missing early last year. The director of the museum also resigned last year, saying…

Two minutes after Maximilian Mittelstädt scored his first ever Germany goal, Robert Andrich had no problem getting in Memphis Depay’s face. Later, it was Antonio Rüdiger challenging Wout Weghorst. Days before, it had been Toni Kroos crunching his Real Madrid team Aurelien Tchouameni and Andrich, again, riling up Kylian Mbappe. “Something has definitely come into being that wasn’t there before,” said Kroos. “You can see it in the small things, the tackles, the reaction between us,” said Thomas Müller. Both France and the Netherlands were beaten and over the course of seven days, the conversation around this team has changed. Germany’s brilliance…

Brazil and France on Tuesday announced a program to protect the Amazon rainforest involving €1 billion ($1.08 billion) in funds over the next four years. The announcement came as French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in the Brazilian city of Belem to speak with Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Belem lies at the mouth of the Amazon River in the northern Brazilian state of Para. The city will be the host of the COP30 climate summit in 2025. What do we know about the plan? The investment plan aims to raise “€1 billion of public and private investment over the next…

It wasn’t a concert — Taylor Swift was nowhere to be seen. Still, thousands of people packed an arena in San Jose, California, to listen and cheer on March 18. The star of this show was Jensen Huang, who was on stage showing off a new chip that would be launched later in the year. His two-hour performance has since been watched by nearly 27 million people on YouTube. Huang, CEO and co-founder of Nvidia, presented in his customary black leather jacket at the company’s annual developer conference. Though still not a household name beyond the tech community, Nvidia caused waves recently after…

Thailand’s lower house of parliament passed on Wednesday a bill that would legalize same-sex unions in the country. The text still needs the Senate’s approval and the king’s endorsement to become law. Thailand one of the most open LGBTQ communities in Asia, but activists have said Thai conservative laws do not represent the community despite the changing social attitudes in the country. What happened in parliament? The bill was passed by an overwhelming majority of the 415 lawmakers present, with 10 votes against. “We did this for all Thai people to reduce disparity in society and start creating equality,” Danuphorn Punnakanta,…

Audio has emerged of a first responder call as officials halted traffic on both sides of the Francis Scott Key Bridge moments before it collapsed.The cargo ship had issued a mayday call to alert authorities it had lost power before it collided with the Baltimore bridge on Tuesday morning. Following the call, Maryland Transportation Authority Police Dispatch and Response officials acted swiftly, shutting down the north and south sides of the bridge.Read more:Everything we know about the disasterFirst missing worker named – as rescue mission becomes a recovery operationOne official instructs: “Hold all traffic on the Key Bridge… There’s a…

Throughout his life, Richard Serra created works that interacted with their surroundings, becoming complete only through the viewer’s presence. One has to walk on or around one of Serra’s gigantic sculptures to fully understand the extent of these works. His sculptures seem to rise into the sky. They are extremely heavy and either block people’s paths or merge with nature. In Qatar, Serra created sculptures in the desert ahead of the 2022 World CupImage: MUSTAFA ABUMUNES/AFP Richard Serra: half-sculptor, half-master builder Serra, who died on March 26, 2024, saw himself not as a sculptor, but as a master builder — creating numerous sculptures for public…

Germany and Real Madrid defender Antonio Rüdiger and the German Football Association (DFB) have launched legal proceedings against a former newspaper editor who accused the player of making a gesture of support for Islamic extremism in a Ramadan-related social media post. On March 11, at the start of the Muslim month for fasting, prayer, community and reflection, Rüdiger posted an image of himself kneeling on a prayer map in a white robe with his right index finger pointing upwards, along with the caption: “Ramadan Mubarak to all Muslims around the world. May the almighty accept our fasting and prayers.” Two…

Thailand’s lower house of parliament passed on Wednesday a bill that would legalize same-sex unions in the country. The text still needs the Senate’s approval and the king’s endorsement to become law. Thailand has one of the most open LGBTQ communities in Asia, but activists have said Thai conservative laws do not represent the community despite the changing social attitudes in the country. What happened in parliament? The bill was passed by an overwhelming majority of the 415 lawmakers present, with 10 votes against. “We did this for all Thai people to reduce disparity in society and start creating equality,” Danuphorn Punnakanta,…

A group of leading economic think tanks released their six-monthly “collective diagnosis” of the German economy for early 2024 on Wednesday.  Titled “German economy ailing — reforming the debt brake is no cure-all,” the report revised 2024 growth forecast down from 1.2% to near-stagnation, at 0.1% for the year.  “Germany’s economy is struggling. A phase of economic weakness that has persisted until recently is accompanied by dwindling growth forces. Both economic and structural factors are therefore overlapping in the sluggish overall economic development,” the report’s summary said. It predicted that the situation would start to improve soon, but also warned that…