Author: DW

Pregnancy means new life to most of us — and a unique experience every time, bringing your baby into this world. But in all too many cases, pregnancy also means the end of a life. In late February 2023, the United Nations released a new report on maternal mortality around the world. The report described how one woman dies every two minutes due to child birthor complications experienced in pregnancy. “Pregnancy is tragically still a shockingly dangerous experience for millions around the world,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO). In the year 2000, the global maternal mortality rate (MMR) stood…

On a December afternoon, when DW visited Ostend, the hometown of James Ensor, it did not exactly present itself as a “lovely colorful flower”, as the Belgian painter once called it. The town is situated on the Flemish North Sea coast. Dark clouds hovered over the beach that stretches between the Netherlands in the east and France in the west. Before its destruction during World War II, Ostend was known as the “Queen of Seaside Resorts.” Today, the coastal strip is built up with modernist vacation apartment buildings. James Ensor lived in this charming, sleepy town from his birth on April 13, 1860 until…

The dopamine hit that social media provides is something many around the world are familiar with. Less familiar is being sent death threats for your performance at work. For professional athletes, this is sadly becomingly an increasingly common reality. After German ice hockey team Cologne Sharks recently lost 5-4 in a league game, defenseman Moritz Müller, who was awarded a penalty just 70 seconds in for a heavy foul, received a death threat on Instagram. A user first posted a knife and a red drop of blood before writing on the photo of Müller with his three children: “I would kill these worms…

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) on Friday said it had arrested a Russian national, working for a state firm, who it said was planning to pass on sensitive information to Poland. The FSB said the man was working at a “secure facility” in the central Penza region and was held for attempting to pass on information about his workplace to Polish intelligence, state news agency RIA reported. Poland says FSB claims ‘fake news’ Poland’s deputy foreign minister Andrjez Szejna poured cold water on the claims in comments carried by Polish news website Onet. “Any information provided by the Russian side…

Taiwan’s economy, once hailed as a miracle, is not as dynamic as it used to be. Growth in the gross domestic product (GDP), which was an impressive 6.6% in 2021, fell to 2.6% in 2022 and then 1.4% in 2023. No wonder, then, that future prosperity is on the minds of many on the self-governing island as the January 13 election nears. There is indeed debate over defense spending — but the military threat from China, which regards Taiwan as part of its territory, only has some voters concerned, as two academics argued last week in the Australian Financial Review. “Just under half of…

On Tuesday afternoon at 3:14 p.m. local time (07:14 a.m. UTC), all cell phones in Taiwan sounded an alarm, four times in a row. “Air Raid Alert! Missile flyover Taiwan airspace, be aware,” warned the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense in English.  It sparked the question in many people’s minds: Is Beijing attacking days before the Taiwanese presidential and parliamentary elections?  Many foreign journalists, including DW reporter Richard Walker, also received the warning message during a press conference with Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu. But the minister was able to reassure everyone, as the Chinese language warning message described the situation more clearly:…

Rishi Sunak will visit Kyiv today as he announces a new package of military aid, security assurances and humanitarian support.Mr Sunak will sign a UK-Ukraine Agreement on Security Cooperation with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy – committing the UK to provide intelligence sharing, cyber security, medical and military training, and defence industrial cooperation. The UK will provide £2.5bn in military aid to Ukraine in 2024-25, an increase of £200m on the previous two years, the prime minister announced.The package will provide the country with long-range missiles, air defence, artillery ammunition and maritime security.Around £200m will also be spent on a push to…

Meryam Schouler-Ocak knows the looks first-hand: “I was on a train recently, sitting across from two older women, who kept looking me up and down the whole time, staring.” At first, she thought they may have seen a stain on her clothes, or that she had left a button open somewhere. But it wasn’t that. It was the fact that she had dark hair and is of Turkish descent. “Microaggression” is how Schouler-Ocak describes such forms of racial discrimination. “Many people with a migration background, dark skin or dark hair, experience it almost every day,” she said. Dismissive stares, dumb…

They are quirky characters in quirky stories, depicted with an affectionate detachment. They’re about love, loss and abandonment — and a lot about sex. There is smoking and drinking; when music is played, it’s rock or jazz. And that’s no coincidence: Haruki Murakami loves music, and the Japanese editions of some of his novels have the same titles as famous songs. No such thing as bad publicity Murakami published his first novel in the late 1970s, but international recognition came later. In Germany, that happened in June 2000, when the panel of a weekly TV talk show where literature critics met…

Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah,Victor Osimhen and Mohammed Kudus are just a few of the big stars that will play at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). They carry the hopes of their nations. But their teammates who play club football at a much lower level have their own role to play, and often quite magical tales to tell. Take Mozambique striker Stanley Ratifo. Born in Halle, Germany, Ratifo has been playing for his father’s homeland since 2017 and ever since his debut has been heralded as a hero. Ratifo scored the winner in injury time to seal Mozambique’s first ever win…