Author: DW

Former Barcelona and Brazilian footballer Dani Alves has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison after being found guilty of sexual assault. Catalonia’s top court found him guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in an upscale Barcelona nightclub early on New Years Eve in December 2022.The victim said Alves raped her in a bathroom. He was also ordered to pay 150,000 euros to the victim by the court.The 40-year-old ex-right-back was arrested in January 2023. He has been detained since then and had requests for bail denied as the court considered him a flight risk.The Brazilian Federal…

Traffic around the Spanish capital was severely disrupted on Wednesday as farmers converged in the city center for a rally to protest against Spanish and EU agricultural policies. Five columns of tractors headed for Madrid’s Independence Square ahead of a march to the Agriculture Ministry. Traffic in some areas ground to a halt, and public transport also suffered much disruption, with protesters cramming the streets. The protest comes on the heels of weeks of protests in various European countries, including Germany.   Spanish Agriculture Minister Luis Planas said he hoped that the demonstration would proceed “in a peaceful manner and without any kind…

At least two people have died and three others are missing after a ship collided with a bridge in the southern Chinese metropolis of Guangzhou on Thursday, causing a part of it to collapse. According to the Guangzhou maritime affairs bureau, the collision sent five vehicles, including a motorbike, off the bridge and either into the water or onto the empty cargo ship below. Rescuers workers have rushed to the site of the accident, official reports said.  China’s state television showed footage in which the vessel can be seen wedged between two bridge pillars and a significant gap can be seen…

Citizen soldiers on an Estonian island are dubbed “the SAS” because they train with weapons and war paint on Saturdays and Sundays.The volunteers – many of them middle-aged dads and the odd mum – said British civilians should also consider getting off their sofas and learning how to fight as the threat from Russia grows. It echoes a rallying cry last month from the outgoing head of the British army, General Sir Patrick Sanders, who said civilians need to be trained to fight a future war – an idea immediately dismissed by Rishi Sunak’s government.Ukraine war: latest updates”You know, we…

A bridge collapse in the Netherlands has left two dead and two injured, Dutch regional authorities said Wednesday.  Dutch safety officials from the north and eastern parts of the Gelderland region said on X, formerly Twitter, that the collapse in the city of Lochem was due to an “industrial accident.” The bridge is under construction.  “Our thoughts go out to the loved ones of the victims,” the post added.   Exact cause of collapse still unclear The authorities later added in a separate post that the cause of the collapse is still unclear and said research is being done into why the incident…

A US delegation led by Republican lawmaker and vocal China critic Mike Gallagher arrived in Taiwan on Thursday for meetings with the island’s top leadership. Gallagher, the chair of the House of Representatives Select Committee on China, was accompanied by four other lawmakers on the trip that ends Saturday. Gallagher: ‘The United States stands with Taiwan’ “Time and again, Taiwan has shown the world how to stand up to the CCP’s [Communist Party of China] bullying and not only survive but thrive,” Gallagher said in a statement that was released after the delegation’s arrival. “The United States stands with Taiwan. By promoting…

An Alabama medical centre has stopped all IVF treatments after a court ruled that embryos are babies.The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), an academic medical centre, suspended its IVF treatments so it could consider the legal repercussions of the decision, made by the state’s supreme court. The ruling was made in a case where a person wandered into an unlocked storage area at a fertility clinic and dropped several frozen embryos on the floor.The court determined that failing to secure that storage area violated the state’s Wrongful Death Act – which says an unjustified or negligent act that leads…

US President Joe Biden referred to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, as a “crazy SOB” (meaning “crazy son of a bitch”) at the San Francisco fundraiser for his 2024 reelection campaign on Wednesday. The event was attended by a small group of reporters. Biden was talking about climate change when he said, “We have a crazy SOB like this guy Putin and others, and we always have to worry about nuclear conflict, but the existential threat to humanity is climate.” On Tuesday, Biden said the US would announce a package of tough new sanctions against Russia on Friday over the…

 A US delegation led by Republican lawmaker and vocal China critic Mike Gallagher arrived in Taiwan on Thursday for meetings with the island’s top leadership. Gallagher, the chair of the House of Representatives Select Committee on China, was accompanied by four other lawmakers on the trip that ends Saturday. “Time and again, Taiwan has shown the world how to stand up to the CCP’s [Communist Party of China] bullying and not only survive but thrive,” Gallagher said in a statement that was released after the delegation’s arrival. “The United States stands with Taiwan. By promoting deeper ties between our leaders and our…

US authorities have charged the leader of a Japanese crime syndicate with conspiring to traffic nuclear materials from Myanmar for expected use in Iranian nuclear weapons.Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, and his co-defendant Somphop Singhasiri, 61, trafficked in drugs, weapons, and nuclear material, “going so far as to offer uranium and weapons-grade plutonium fully expecting that Iran would use it for nuclear weapons,” said Anne Milgram, who heads the Drug Enforcement Administration. “This is an extraordinary example of the depravity of drug traffickers who operate with total disregard for human life,” she said. Image: Some of the nuclear materials. Pic: US Department…