Author: DW

After two acts of sabotage targeting Poland’s rail network, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski didn’t mince words about the situation. “That wasn’t like prior acts of sabotage — it was state terrorism — because its clear aim was human casualties,” said Sikorski in Poland’s parliament on Wednesday. Poland’s Interior Ministry has reported that several people possibly involved in the attacks have been arrested and await questioning. “A foreign nation sent well-prepared saboteurs who failed in their mission only through some miracle,” Sikorski added. He then accused Russia’s GRU military intelligence service of recruiting mercenaries to “do the dirty work.” Shortly thereafter,…

A new peace proposal for Ukraine drafted by President Donald Trump’s administration suggests significant concessions by Kyiv.

Photos of empty cinemas have been circulating online in recent weeks — a form of protest staged by Zhu Rikun, curator of the New York–based IndieChina Film Festival, against what he called the Chinese government’s crackdown on independent films. The festival was canceled on November 6, just days before it was due to start, due to pressure from the Chinese government. “I didn’t notice any warning signs… In the festival statement, I even expressed hope that the festival could soon return to China. I didn’t want it to become an event in exile,” Zhu told DW.Photos of empty chairs were used as…

China has again overtaken the US to become Germany’s top trading partner, thanks to a rise in imports to Germany in the first three quarters of 2025.  This comes amid tariff tensions with both countries, albeit with Donald Trump’s trade policies probably getting the most attention, and as German exports to both the core markets falter. Car sales suffered in particular. What were the core figures?  The government’s statistics office, Destatis, published corrected data on Wednesday showing a total trade volume with China of €185.9 billion (roughly $215 billion) between January and September. That’s an increase of 0.6% compared to…

What is next for Germany? On December 5, the draw for the World Cup group stage will be made. Thirty-four of the 48 teams (up from 32 in Qatar) have qualified for the World Cup, as of November 18. A total of seven European nations have secured their spot, including Germany. Norway return for the first time since 1998, while Jordan, Uzbekistan and Cape Verde will all make their debuts. After Germany’s win against Slovakia, they are set to move into ninth in the world rankings, most likely putting them into Pot 1 for the draw. This would almost certainly mean they will avoid facing another…

11/20/2025November 20, 2025Ukrainian lawmaker tells DW reported peace plan sounds ‘like surrender’Reports of a possible peace plan to end the conflict in Ukraine sound “like surrender,” Oleksiy Goncharenko of Ukraine’s opposition European Solidarity party told DW. The lawmaker dismissed reports of a plan allegedly negotiated between the United States and Russia that would require Kyiv to cede land controlled by Russian forces and cut its military size by more than half, calling it disinformation by Moscow. “The main guarantee for Ukraine, as for any other country, [is] its own armed forces,” he said. “That’s exactly what Russia wants — to…

Sixty years ago, Polish bishops approached their German counterparts with an unexpected message of reconciliation. To the majority of Poles, the gesture came as a shock. Twenty years after the end of World War Two, at the height of the Cold War, relations between Poland and then-West Germany were characterized by mistrust, hostility and lack of communication. The division of Germany had been finalized just four years earlier with the building of the Berlin Wall. Two irreconcilable ideological blocs — the capitalist West and the communist East — were now squaring up to each other on either side of the Iron…

Peter Wollny has known the Ciacona in D minor and the Ciacona in G minor for more than 30 years now — ever since he discovered the organ works at the Royal Library of Belgium. The handwritten manuscripts were from an unknown writer; undated and unsigned. Yet Peter Wollny — now director of the Bach Archive in Leipzig — had a sense his discovery could actually be a hidden treasure, composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. His meticulous hunt for clues began. “To confirm the pieces’ identity, I searched for a long time for the missing piece of the puzzle,” he…

The joint attendance of French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at an event in Berlin on Tuesday (November 18) aimed at bolstering Europe’s technological independence suggests they mean business on the topic. Europe’s struggle to keep pace with the US and China on tech and digital innovation — from artificial intelligence, to semiconductor production, to cloud computing — has been blamed for the continent’s sluggish economic growth and apparently bleak prospects. The Berlin gathering, titled the “Summit on European Digital Sovereignty,” focused on the risks of dependence on China and the US for increasingly critical infrastructure. “Digital sovereignty…

In the US alone, 12% of the population have reported using injectable weight loss drugs, such as Wegovy/Ozempic, Zepbound and Saxenda, over the past year. That’s more than double the number recorded in early 2024. In European countries, demand is also on the rise: In the UK, for example, a survey found that 21% of the public had accessed an online or in-person pharmacy in the past year to obtain weight loss medication. Germans, for example, have also been keen to adopt the drugs, even if they have to pay for them themselves, according to a report by Reuters. Amid…