Author: DW

Alaskapox is an orthopoxvirus related to smallpox, cowpox and mpox (initially known as “monkeypox”). Infections have so far only occurred in the US state of Alaska. There have only been seven recorded cases in humans since the first one was reported in 2015. Patients infected with Alaskapox report one or more skin lesions similar to spider or insect bites. Other symptoms include swollen lymph nodes and joint or muscle pain that usually clears up in a few weeks.   Before the patient who died in January, all other cases of Alaskapox were mild and did not require hospitalization.  How is the…

Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto on Wednesday claimed victory in the presidential election as unofficial tallies indicated that he and his running mate, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, were poised to win in a single round.  “All counts, all pollsters… showed figures that Prabowo-Gibran won in one round. This victory should be a victory for all Indonesians,” he told a crowd at an arena in central Jakarta. Independent pollster Litbang Kompas said that Subianto was leading with nearly 60% of the vote, based on over half of the votes counted at a sample of polling stations across the country. Two other pollsters, Poltracking…

Germany will meet NATO’s defense spending target of 2% of its gross domestic product (GDP) for the first time since the early 1990s, according to a Defense Ministry spokesman and NATO forecast released Wednesday. German news agency DPA put the figure of the German government’s reported allocation for defense spending at $73.41 billion (€ 68.58 billion) in the current year which it said would be 2.01% of Germany’s GDP. In 2023, Germany spent 1.57% of GDP on defense, well short of the 2% target. This Monday, however, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged to meet the 2% spending commitment while on a visit to Rheinmetall’s…

An 800-person rescue operation is under way to save at least nine workers trapped in a gold mine that was engulfed by a massive landslide in eastern Turkey.The landslide struck the Copler mine in the town of Ilic in Turkey’s mountainous Erzincan province on Tuesday. Footage showed a huge mass of earth rushing down a gully, overrunning everything in its path. Image: An ambulance leaves the Copler gold mine. Pic: AP Interior minister Ali Yerlikaya said the landslide involved a mound of soil extracted from the mine.Some 800 search and rescue personnel, including police and military teams, mine rescuers and…

When South Korea’s Ministry of Trade and Industry submitted revisions to laws covering industrial espionage to the country’s legislature in November, it was widely accepted that the new provisions were designed to fend off alleged attempts by Chinese companies and the government in Beijing to access secret technologies.   But reports that authorities are investigating one of the 15 Indonesian engineers working at Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) on the joint development of the KF-21 fighter jet, on suspicion he stole critical technologies, indicate that South Korea has a similar problem with nations that it considers allies and business partners. Revisions…

Iran’s Oil Minister Javad Owji said two explosions along Iran’s main south-north gas pipeline network were caused by sabotage. But his televised statement made no mention of possible suspects. “This terrorist act of sabotage occurred at 1 a.m. (9.30 p.m. GMT) on Wednesday morning in the network of national gas transmission pipelines in two regions of the country,” Owji on Thursday. He added that only the villages near the damaged pipeline were experiencing gas outages and that those would be fixed later today. Iranian authorities denied reports that the incident caused gas cuts to industrial plants and offices. Owji pointed to a similar…

Chinese football fans have called Lionel Messi a “thief” and mocked him over the Falkland Islands.The Argentinian star angered supporters when he didn’t play during Inter Miami’s game in Hong Kong earlier this month. Messi was on the bench due to a groin injury but fans had splashed out on pricey tickets with the expectation of seeing the footballing great.Hong Kong authorities also criticised the no-show and his appearance during a game in Japan days later irked Chinese fans even more.Anger on social media in recent days has seen some reportedly bring up the Falkland Islands – over which Argentina…

Chilean director Felipe Galvez’s feature film debut, “The Settlers” or “Los colonos” in its native Spanish, tells a brutal story from Chile’s past. Set in 1893, it follows three horsemen on an expedition in Chile’s southernmost region, the Patagonian archipelago of Tierra del Fuego. The three men, a young Chilean native, an American mercenary, and a reckless British lieutenant, are hired by a wealthy landowner to delimit and reclaim the land the state has given him. The men murder Indigenous people from the Selk’nam tribe — nomads who survive by hunting the colonizers’ sheep. The Indigenous tribe members fight back, and a…

A glass jar filled with fine-grained black powder that slides along the walls of the jar, shining as factory lights fall on it as I roll the jar in my hand. The label on the jar says “black mass,” which sounds kind of cool, even mysterious. The powder inside contains valuable battery metals such as lithium, nickel and cobalt sourced from shredded EV batteries. The black mass could be key to the EU’s electric vehicle ambitions and help it catch up with China, the world leader in electric vehicle battery manufacturing and recycling. I am at an EV battery recycling plant run by Duesenfeld in northern Germany, in Wendeburg, just…

A 38-year-old from Germany has been arrested by Russian authorities after cannabis-laced gummy bears were allegedly discovered in his luggage. The man was held at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport and had flown in from Hamburg via Istanbul. What Russian authorities have said Customs officials said on Tuesday that they had found a 20-gram (0.035 ounces) pack of “Fink Green Goldbears” containing six gummy bears. The Russian authorities noted the bears had a “sharp smell.”  A rapid test revealed that the sweets contained tetrahydrocannabinol — or THC, the main ingredient found in cannabis — which is prohibited in Russia. “The man explained…