Author: DW

Citizen soldiers on an Estonian island are dubbed “the SAS” because they train with weapons and war paint on Saturdays and Sundays.The volunteers – many of them middle-aged dads and the odd mum – said British civilians should also consider getting off their sofas and learning how to fight as the threat from Russia grows. It echoes a rallying cry last month from the outgoing head of the British army, General Sir Patrick Sanders, who said civilians need to be trained to fight a future war – an idea immediately dismissed by Rishi Sunak’s government.Ukraine war: latest updates”You know, we…

A bridge collapse in the Netherlands has left two dead and two injured, Dutch regional authorities said Wednesday.  Dutch safety officials from the north and eastern parts of the Gelderland region said on X, formerly Twitter, that the collapse in the city of Lochem was due to an “industrial accident.” The bridge is under construction.  “Our thoughts go out to the loved ones of the victims,” the post added.   Exact cause of collapse still unclear The authorities later added in a separate post that the cause of the collapse is still unclear and said research is being done into why the incident…

A US delegation led by Republican lawmaker and vocal China critic Mike Gallagher arrived in Taiwan on Thursday for meetings with the island’s top leadership. Gallagher, the chair of the House of Representatives Select Committee on China, was accompanied by four other lawmakers on the trip that ends Saturday. Gallagher: ‘The United States stands with Taiwan’ “Time and again, Taiwan has shown the world how to stand up to the CCP’s [Communist Party of China] bullying and not only survive but thrive,” Gallagher said in a statement that was released after the delegation’s arrival. “The United States stands with Taiwan. By promoting…

An Alabama medical centre has stopped all IVF treatments after a court ruled that embryos are babies.The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), an academic medical centre, suspended its IVF treatments so it could consider the legal repercussions of the decision, made by the state’s supreme court. The ruling was made in a case where a person wandered into an unlocked storage area at a fertility clinic and dropped several frozen embryos on the floor.The court determined that failing to secure that storage area violated the state’s Wrongful Death Act – which says an unjustified or negligent act that leads…

US President Joe Biden referred to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, as a “crazy SOB” (meaning “crazy son of a bitch”) at the San Francisco fundraiser for his 2024 reelection campaign on Wednesday. The event was attended by a small group of reporters. Biden was talking about climate change when he said, “We have a crazy SOB like this guy Putin and others, and we always have to worry about nuclear conflict, but the existential threat to humanity is climate.” On Tuesday, Biden said the US would announce a package of tough new sanctions against Russia on Friday over the…

 A US delegation led by Republican lawmaker and vocal China critic Mike Gallagher arrived in Taiwan on Thursday for meetings with the island’s top leadership. Gallagher, the chair of the House of Representatives Select Committee on China, was accompanied by four other lawmakers on the trip that ends Saturday. “Time and again, Taiwan has shown the world how to stand up to the CCP’s [Communist Party of China] bullying and not only survive but thrive,” Gallagher said in a statement that was released after the delegation’s arrival. “The United States stands with Taiwan. By promoting deeper ties between our leaders and our…

US authorities have charged the leader of a Japanese crime syndicate with conspiring to traffic nuclear materials from Myanmar for expected use in Iranian nuclear weapons.Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, and his co-defendant Somphop Singhasiri, 61, trafficked in drugs, weapons, and nuclear material, “going so far as to offer uranium and weapons-grade plutonium fully expecting that Iran would use it for nuclear weapons,” said Anne Milgram, who heads the Drug Enforcement Administration. “This is an extraordinary example of the depravity of drug traffickers who operate with total disregard for human life,” she said. Image: Some of the nuclear materials. Pic: US Department…

The German Football League (DFL) has announced that it has abandoned its plans to negotiate a 1 billion euro investment deal with a private equity partner. The decision came after widespread fan protests against the proposals which had seen matches in the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 (Germany’s top two divisions) increasingly disrupted by supporters throwing tennis balls and other objects onto pitches, causing delays of up to 30 minutes. “Given current developments, a successful continuation of the process no longer appears possible,” said Hans-Joachim Watzke, DFL supervisory board chairman and Borussia Dortmund CEO, in a statement following an emergency DFL meeting on Wednesday.…

On the eve of the second anniversary of Russia’s  invasion of Ukraine, the European Union has managed to get a 13th package of sanctions targeting Moscow over the line. On Wednesday, EU ambassadors agreed to add close to 200 individuals and companies to a list that already had around 2,000 entries. With the bloc facing tough questions about the scope and effectiveness of its sanctions strategy, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell was among senior officials publicly celebrating the deal. “We are taking more action against entities involved in circumvention, the defense and military sectors,” Borrell wrote on X, formerly…

A European satellite launched in 1995 to observe Earth and ended its mission 13 years ago — long after its planned 3-year lifetime — returned to our planet Wednesday, according to the European Space Agency (ESA). Debris from the satellite fell over the North Pacific Ocean at around 18:17 CET (17:17 UTC), the ESA said. The satellite’s altitude had been declining steadily since the ESA decided to retire it in 2011. The satellite then reached the critical altitude of around 80 kilometers (50 miles) above Earth’s surface on Wednesday, at which point the atmospheric drag was so strong that it began to break…