Author: DW

On Monday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak met Northern Ireland’s new power-sharing executive during a visit to Belfast after an end to a nearly two-year political crisis that saw the region without an executive. First Minister Michelle O’Neill, of the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party, and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, from the pro-UK Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), called on Britain to boost its budget offer for the region. What did Sunak say? Sunak hailed his “very constructive meetings” with the new executive, describing it as “a historic and important day for the country, because Northern Ireland’s politicians are back in…

McDonald’s has reported its first quarterly sales miss in nearly four years amid customer boycotts related to the Israel-Hamas war.The fast food giant said sales growth for the period in its division including the Middle East, China and India was 0.7% – far below market expectations of 5.5%, according to London Stock Exchange Group data. It comes after a row was sparked last October when McDonald’s Israel announced it had donated thousands of free meals to Israel Defence Forces (IDF) troops involved in the conflict.The move sparked a furious backlash from critics of Israel’s military action in Gaza – which…

Protesters gathered on Monday outside Senegal’s parliament in Dakar to decry the presidential election’s postponement, after authorities restricted mobile internet access on Sunday evening ahead of the demos. President Macky Sall announced on Saturday that the vote would be postponed to an unspecified date amid a row over the candidate list, prompting angry protests. The vote had been scheduled for February 25, campaigning was about to begin. Lawmakers are investigating two judges on the country’s Constitutional Court, whose integrity in the election process has been questioned. Why was the internet cut off? Senegal’s Ministry of Communication, Telecommunications and Digital Economy…

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has on several occasions referred to his country as a “Vishwamitra,” or “friend of the world” — a term that he has used in recent speeches and at rallies across India. “It is a matter of pride for all that India has carved a place for itself as ‘Vishwamitra’ and the entire world is seeing a friend in India,” he told Parliament in September 2023. But what exactly does the term mean for the world? The campaign is a reflection of the Modi government’s assertiveness to become the leading voice of the Global South, according to Sreeram Chaulia,…

Boeing might have to delay deliveries of more of its 737 jets after a worker discovered a production issue with some of its fuselages.In a letter shared with the media, Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief executive Stan Deal told staff a worker at a supplier had found misdrilled holes in fuselages. Spirit AeroSystems, based in Wichita, Kansas, makes many of the fuselages for Boeing Max jets.Mr Deal wrote: “While this potential condition is not an immediate safety issue and all 737s can continue operating safely, we currently believe we will have to perform rework on about 50 undelivered planes.”The employee at…

Soccer player Dani Alves appeared in a Barcelona court on Tuesday accused of having sexually assaulted a young woman. The Brazilian football star was arrested on January 20, 2023, and has been held in detention for over a year amid fears that he was a flight risk. Alves had offered to hand over his passport and wear a tracker, but the court considered the risk too great as Brazil does not extradite its citizens charged in foreign countries. The alleged assault took place at a Barcelona nightclub in December 2022. State prosecutors are seeking a nine-year prison sentence. Rape convictions carry a…

Skip next section UK says Russia ‘unlikely’ to meet 2024 revenue target02/05/2024February 5, 2024UK says Russia ‘unlikely’ to meet 2024 revenue targetMoscow is “unlikely” to meet its planned revenue target for the year 2024, the British Ministry of Defence said in its daily intelligence update on Monday. “It is likely the government will need to consider other policy measures to fund its planned expenditure,” the ministry said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Those policy measures could include reducing contributions to the National Wealth Fund and increasing domestic taxes and debts, the ministry said. “These policies…

“It’s a catch 22,” says Goran Cacic when asked about the legal technicalities preventing his Green Energy Cooperative, a Zagreb-based NGO, from becoming a full-fledged citizen energy community. Cacic wants his renewable energy collective to be able to share and distribute electricity as well as produce it, which it does now. “Croatia’s energy regulator says we need to register to ‘organize citizen energy communities,’ but the courts don’t recognize that as an official activity and won’t let us,” he explains. But that isn’t the only obstacle blocking citizen energy communities over two years after the Croatian parliament established a legal…

China has handed an Australian writer a suspended death sentence – five years after he was arrested on suspicion of spying.Pro-democracy academic Dr Yang Hengjun was detained at Guangzhou Airport in 2019 accused of espionage for a country China has not publicly identified. Dr Yang’s sentence, which comes three years after a closed-door trial, could be commuted to life imprisonment after two years if he doesn’t commit any serious crimes in that period, according to the Australian government.He has denied working as a spy for Australia or the US, with letters to family and supporters sent from jail further denying…

It’s well known that smoking weed can give you the munchies. But exactly how cannabis stimulates appetite, and why that’s useful knowledge, has been revealed by new research in the US. The researchers at Washington State University exposed rats and mice to cannabis vapor to stimulate specific brain regions associated with appetite. They also observed the rodents’ feeding behavior, such as how often they ate. Independent experts that DW contacted, such as Donald Abrams, an oncologist at University of California San Francisco, suggested the findings were a useful addition to existing research into the medicinal application of cannabis. “Rats are not people,” said Abrams. “But as one…