Author: DW

US President Donald Trump has announced new weapons for Ukraine and threatened to hit buyers of Russian exports with sanctions unless Russia agrees to a peace deal in 50 days. Sitting side by side with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump told reporters that he was disappointed with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which is why he would be sending “billions of dollars” in weapons to Ukraine, including Patriot air defence missiles which Kyiv has requested to defend its cities from Russian air strikes. Additionally, the US president has threatened Moscow with secondary sanctions, saying “if we don’t have a…

Posts on social media have popped up recently, claiming that applying sunscreen reportedly increases the risk of skin cancer. Even though ultraviolet (UV) radiation is the main cause of melanomas, and sunscreen helps protect skin by filtering UV rays, these posts claim that sunscreen itself is doing damage. Claim: “It is an indisputable fact that the countries that use the most sunscreen, have the highest incidence of skin cancer,” said this X userin a post with close to 60,000 followers. “And the more sunscreen they use, the greater the prevalence.” There are also TikTok videoswarning about sunscreen. DW Fact check: False “There is…

Marathon world record holder Ruth Chepngetich has been provisionally suspended on suspicion of doping, World Athletics’ independent Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said on Thursday. The 30-year-old Kenyan smashed the women’s marathon world record in Chicago in October last year with an astonishing time of 2:09:56 – almost two minutes faster than the previous record held by Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa (2:11:53). On March 14 this year, however, she tested positive for the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide, which is banned because it can be used to hide traces of other banned substances. It can also be used to treat fluid retention and hypertension. According…

Jemima Goldsmith, the former wife of Pakistan’s ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan, has accused the Pakistani government of obstructing her children from communicating with their father.    The 72-year-old cricketer-turned-politician Khan has been behind bars since August 2023. He was previously ousted as prime minister in a parliamentary vote of confidence in April 2022. Khan faces multiple charges, including corruption and terrorism, but his supporters believe the cases are politically motivated and aimed at thwarting his return to power. In a post on X, Goldsmith said the government threatened to arrest Khan’s sons if they attempt to visit him. She described it…

US President Donald Trump signed a law to create a regulatory framework for stablecoins. This could create a way for the US-dollar-based cryptocurrencies to come into regular use for making payments and moving money. The bill, also known as the GENIUS Act (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins), passed in the House of Representatives by a vote of 308 to 122 after being approved by the Senate earlier.  “The GENIUS Act, they named it after me,” Trump said at the bill-signing ceremony at the White House, where a few government officials, lawmakers, and crypto industry leaders were present.  “It’s…

How long does it take to divorce in your country? In Estonia, the first step of the uncomfortable undertaking can be made in less than a minute — and even without the undesired spouse being present. “It takes 45 seconds to get to the point where it says submit the divorce application,” said Luukas Ilves, until last year the Estonian government’s chief information officer Ilves told DW that divorce application was the last section of public administration that had yet to be digitized, which means the small Baltic state bordering Russia is probably the first fully digitized country in the world.Estonia’s digital administration platforms are easy…

US television host Stephen Colbert has announced that The Late Show, a fixture of late-night stateside broadcasting, will conclude in 2026. The timing has raised questions, coming just days after Colbert criticized his broadcaster CBS’s parent company Paramount over its recent $16 million (€13.8 million) legal settlement with US President Donald Trump. How the news was delivered “Next year will be our last season,” Colbert said. “The network will be ending the show in May [2026].” The news, delivered during his live taping, was met with audible boos from the studio audience. CBS described the decision as “purely a financial one…

We spend 4 hours and 37 minutes on our phones each day, checking them around 58 times, on average. We like to tell ourselves it’s to socialize, for work, or to read the news. But most of us are addicted, and we know it. You can test whether you are on the Smartphone Addiction Scale here.  How prevalent is smartphone addiction? Study after study confirms that people are becoming increasingly addicted to smartphones — in every country tested, and in all ages. In the US, for example, nearly 57% of those asked in a recent survey admitted to being addicted…

Austrian extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner, who jumped down to earth from the stratosphere in a 2012 stunt, died in a paragliding accident in the eastern Italian town of Porto Sant’Elpidio on Thursday. According to local media, the 56-year-old lost consciousness while in flight and then lost control of his paraglider, crashing into a hotel pool and lightly injuring a young female employee. Just hours before, he had posted an image in his Instagram story captioned: “Too much wind.” “Our community is deeply affected by the tragic disappearance of Felix Baumgartner, a figure of global prominence, a symbol of courage and passion…

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Thursday that his country will end its blockade of a new EU sanctions package against Russia.  Slovakia had been holding up the 18th EU sanctions package against Russia over concerns regarding a separate EU plan to stop gas imports from Russia beginning in 2028. Fico: ‘Counterproductive’ to continue blockade of EU sanctions  Any new sanctions package requires unanimous approval from all 27 EU member states. “At this point, it would be counterproductive to continue blocking the 18th sanctions package tomorrow,” Fico said in a video posted on Facebook. He said Slovakia received guarantees from the EU pertaining…