Author: DW

A year ago, North Korea’s women successfully defended their U-17 World Cup title after defeating the Netherlands 3-0 in Morocco. It was the fourth time that the country has won the competition. Now the country’s U-20 team enter the World Cup in Poland as defending champions, having won their third World Cup in 2024. North Korea’s women have clearly cemented their status as the dominant force in women’s youth football. But what is it that makes a state that, according to the United Nations, “does not have any parallel in the contemporary world,” so good at youth football? “International sport is one of the few ways to demonstrate their sovereignty, existence…

Germany is watching the upcoming state election in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt with keen interest. Much of the attention is focused on the performance of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), whose state branch in Saxony-Anhalt has been classified by the domestic intelligence agency as “right-wing extremist.” According to opinion polls, the AfD could emerge as the clear election winner. In the last state election in 2021, the AfD won around 20% of the vote and has since been the largest opposition party. The state is governed by a coalition of the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU), the center-left Social Democrats…

World football governing body FIFA took a lash at Europe’s UEFA for starting a “smear campaign” and “fishing expedition” against FIFA and its President Gianni Infantino. This comes after a dispute between the two organizations due to FIFA’s plan to sell a stake in its commercial rights, with UEFA submitting an ex parte application to the US District Court in New York to obtain testimony and documents from US-based entities. These documents will be used in potential criminal proceedings in Switzerland, where both FIFA and UEFA are based. “While these applications are styled as legal pleadings with captions and docket numbers, they are…

“Why should [they] be suffered to swarm into our Settlements, and by herding together establish their Language and Manners to the Exclusion of ours? […] [They] will shortly be so numerous […] and will never adopt our Language or Customs.” These defamatory comments about refugees and asylum-seekers sound as if they might have been made today by the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany party (AfD). Yet in this instance, the people vilified and accused of refusing to integrate are Germans — and the harsh judgement was made in the 18th century by none other than Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United…

The German economy is showing tentative signs of recovery after a prolonged period of gloom. Europe’s largest economy is on track for its strongest GDP growth since 2022, while business sentiment is finally trending upwards again after a lengthy spell in the doldrums. The country’s official statistics office reported last week that the economy grew by 0.3% in the second quarter of 2026, beating estimates and building on robust figures for the previous two quarters. Several others have revised their forecasts upwards. The Ifo Institute, Kiel Institute for the World Economy and the Leibniz Institute for Economic Research are all now predicting…

The London City Lionesses have existed for less than a decade, have played in England’s top flight for just one season and can’t play in the Champions League. Yet, having broken the women’s transfer record last year, the Lionesses have signed some of the game’s biggest stars for the coming season as their ambition becomes ever more apparent. As well as two-time Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas and her Spanish teammate Mapi Leon, England’s Euro 2022 winning goalkeeper Mary Earps and French star Kadidiatou Diani, Germany winger Nicole Anyomi is among the new arrivals. Anyomi left Eintracht Frankfurt, where she’d scored…

When the Austrian women’s national ice hockey team took to the ice in the Women’s European Cup of Nations in Slovakia in August, they did so without 11 of their top players. Captain Anna Meixner and the rest of her team were frustrated that the Austrian Ice Hockey Association (ÖEHV) still hadn’t responded to a list of grievances outlined in a letter to the organization last March. Meixner stresses that the players only went public with their complaints as something of a last resort. Among the nine complaints on their list of demands were the standard of accommodation, having to change in…

Canada has been quietly praised for refusing to fold under pressure from US President Donald Trump in the long-running fight over trade tariffs. The latest talks between the North American neighbors collapsed on August 21. Until the 11th hour, both sides were talking as if a deal was within reach. The United States then put 50% tariffs on about $20 billion (€17.2 billion) worth of Canadian goods, while Ottawa pledged to match those duties on US imports. Until the talks folded, Canada’s approach was to cut a deal that would reduce the tariffs and keep cross-border supply chains functioning, particularly in the automotive and…

Argentina legend Lionel Messi announced his international retirement on Monday. The 39-year-old, widely considered the greatest football player of all time, won the 2022 World Cup in Qatar with Argentina, bringing the title back to the country for the first time since 1986. The 2026 World Cup, Messi’s last appearance in the world’s most well-known footballing competition, ended in disappointment for Argentina after defeat to Spain in the final. Despite being past his prime, the Argentina captain was the second most prolific goalscorer of the 2026 World Cup with eight goals, only being edged out by France’s Kylian Mbappe with ten. Messi…

Gamescom, which runs from August 26-30 in Cologne, is promoted as the world’s largest video game trade show. Last year, two-thirds of its non-industry visitors were male, with over 40% of them between the ages of 16 and 25. Those are precisely the young people the Bundeswehr, Germany’s armed forces, is trying to reach as it urgently seeks to expand its ranks. Germany’s military aims to have 260,000 active-duty soldiers by 2035. The German government has supplied hundreds of billions of euros to modernize the country’s armed forces. Defense has become a priority for Germany in the face of the current global security situation. Career…