Author: DW

Voters headed to the polls on Sunday in Portugal’s parliamentary election, which is expected to be a showdown between two moderate parties, even as the far-right look to grow their influence. Although opinion polls suggest a narrow victory for the center-right Democratic Alliance (AD) coalition over the ruling Socialist Party (PS), neither key party is expected to secure a majority. Meanwhile, the far-right party Chega (Enough) is predicted to make sizeable gains, with surveys showing support increasing from just over 7% to around 15-20%. Polls opened at 8 a.m. local time (0800 GMT) on the mainland and an hour later on the Azores archipelago. Around 10.8 million…

Harry and Meghan have paid a surprise visit to the family of a teacher who was killed in a Texas mass school shooting.Irma Garcia sacrificed her life as she tried to protect her pupils in a classroom at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, where she had taught for 23 years. Mrs Garcia’s nephew, 22-year-old John Martinez, has a picture of his “tia” (aunt in Spanish) pinned at the top of his X feed, where he said she “died a hero” and “will truly be missed”.The teacher’s husband, Joe, died of a heart attack on 27 May 2022, three days after…

Some frog species are being threatened by Europe’s, and especially France’s, appetite for frogs’ legs, hundreds of experts have warned.In a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron, more than 550 vets, researchers and conservationists have called for the EU to stop allowing the “overexploitation” of frogs in Asia and southeast Europe for the EU’s hunger for frogs’ legs. “We see France as having a particular responsibility to take the lead on this issue,” it added.The letter points out that frog populations native to France and the EU are protected against commercial exploitation.Nonetheless, the EU imports more than 4,000 tonnes of…

There’s a renewed urgency to the delivery of food to Gaza but it’s still struggling to keep pace with the escalating humanitarian catastrophe inside the besieged enclave.We joined the small kingdom of Jordan’s air force crew coordinating the multi-nation coalition to get aid to the thousands of Gazans cut off in the north of the Strip. Around 10 planes – all variations of C-130s – spent the day delivering several tonnes of food which were dropped from the air at more than a dozen different locations in north Gaza.The fleet of planes, led by Jordan, included those from Egypt, Belgium…

Private company Stratolaunch said late on Saturday that it tested its Talon-A hypersonic vehicle successfully, publishing a short video of its release and the start of its flight.  “Today was a great day for the Stratolaunch team. I am extremely proud of their perserverance to reach this point,” company President Zachary Krevor said in the statement.  The company said the primary targets of Saturday’s flight had been “accomplishing safe air-launch release of the TA-1 vehicle, engine ignition, acceleration, sustained climb in altitude, and a controlled water landing.”  It released a video showing the first few seconds of the test off…

Gunmen swept through an Islamic school in northwestern Nigeria on Saturday, kidnapping 15 students. The gunmen raided the school premises in the Sokoto village of Gidan Bakuso. They sporadically fired shots, snatching the children while they were sleeping outside.Nigerians on brink of hopelessness as mass abductions recurTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video What do we know about the latest kidnapping? Sokoto police spokesman Ahmad Rufa’i told the Associated Press news agency the incident happened before police arrived. School owner Liman Abubakar Bakuso told the French AFP news agency…

Fifteen children were kidnapped from a school in Nigeria, almost two days after around 300 students were taken hostage.Gunmen invaded the Gidan Bakuso village in Sokoto state at about 1am (12am UK time) on Saturday, police spokesman Ahmad Rufa’i said. The gang seized the children from their hostel before security forces could arrive, and also abducted one woman from the village.Mr Rufa’i said that a police tactical squad was deployed to search for the students, but added that inaccessible roads in the area have hindered the rescue mission.”It is a remote village (and) vehicles cannot go there,” he said. “They…

Ferrari stand-in Oliver Bearman has completed a dream debut with a seventh-place finish at the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix.The 18-year-old British rookie was called in at the last minute to replace Carlos Sainz, after the Spaniard was diagnosed with appendicitis, requiring surgery. Bearman, who only had an hour of practice under his belt and a qualifying appearance – as he normally drives Formula 2 – started in 11th place, working his way into the points by overtaking Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu and Nico Hulkenberg.On worn tyres, he managed to hold on to keep Britain’s Lando Norris and seven-time F1 champion…

Dutch world champion Max Verstappen won the second race of the 2024 F1 season in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, stretching his lead in the championship standings.  Verstappen finished 13 seconds clear of his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez, who was able to hold second place despite a five-second time penalty for an unsafe release from the pit lane.  “It’s one of the more physical races, a tough one,” Verstappen said after his second win of the season. Red Bull tense off track but still dominant on it Excluding the shorter so-called sprint races, Verstappen has won every main F1 race…

German trade union UFO on Saturday called on its roughly 19,000 members working as cabin crew for Lufthansa and Lufthansa Cityline to strike on either Tuesday or Wednesday, March 12 and 13.  It’s the latest in a series of strikes to affect Lufthansa, with Verdi ground staff having downed tools for 27 hours on Thursday and Friday. The last impacts of this action, with isolated delays and cancellations, were still evident on Saturday.  Like trade union Verdi, UFO made reference to Lufthansa’s strong performance in 2023 announced this week — recovering from the major disruptions and losses during the COVID…