Author: DW

Measles has been in decline around the world since the 1980s. The World Health Organization (WHO) says that is largely due to vaccination programs, which — in the past 20 years alone — saved more than 50 million lives. In the 1980s, there were as many as 4 million cases of measles per year. By the early 2020s, infection rates were down to a few hundred thousand. But measles is not gone yet. And the WHO says that that is largely due to people — especially children — not getting vaccinated: “Where children are unvaccinated, outbreaks occur.” Measles is highly-contagious and…

During Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet’s state visit to France in January, President Emmanuel Macron pledged support for returning more Khmer artifacts and for technical assistance to expand the National Museum of Cambodia.  Macron is often cited as the first European leader to lend a voice to long-standing demands from Asian states for the return of their antiquities after he gave a speech in 2017 in which he said that he would “do everything possible” to return the cultural heritage that colonial France had looted. A few months earlier, the Musee Guimet in Paris, France’s national museum of Asian art,…

It’s been a very long time since things have looked so bleak for women’s football in Germany, with the latest blow being the fact that no Bundesliga teams has managed to last beyond the group stage of the Champions League. “It breaks my heart a little to see no German team in the knockout phase,” lamented longtime national team goalkeeper Almuth Schult. “It’s brutal, it’s sad,” said Bayern Munich coach Alexander Straus after an own goal in the 88th minute saw his team draw 2-2 against Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday night. The result saw Bayern drop to third in Group…

Protesting farmers in France have been encouraged to take their tractors off the roads and lift roadblocks after a union chief said the government had responded to their grievances over pay, tax and regulations. Arnaud Gaillot from the Young Farmers (JA) said Thursday that promises of financial assistance and other help had been secured from the government and that it was time for a change of strategy. “We have decided to suspend the roadblocks … and move to a new form of mobilization,” Gaillot said at a press conference alongside Arnaud Rousseau, chief of the biggest rural union FNSEA, which is closely allied…

Inflation rates in the Eurozone fell slightly in January, the Eurostat statistics office in Luxembourg announced on Thursday, keeping alive speculation about interest rate cuts coming soon. Consumer prices in January increased 2.8% compared to 2.9% in December. Analysts had expected a slightly bigger drop to 2.7%, but the European Central Bank (ECB) is still happy with progress towards its medium-term goal of 2%. “The pressure on prices is decreasing and this should continue to be the case in the months to come,” commented Thomas Gitzel, chief economist at Lichenstein’s VP Bank. “The ECB’s target of 2% should soon be in…

A man carrying a gun entered the Proctor & Gamble factory in the Gebze industrial zone in Kocaeli province around 3 p.m. local time (1200 GMT) on Thursday, according to media reports. A police spokesperson was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying that the assailant’s action was apparently in protest of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.   A union representing workers at the consumer goods plant said the assailant was holding seven people hostage, adding that the rest of the plant’s workers had been released. The Turkish Demiroren News Agency reported that police rushed to the scene and tried to persuade…

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin has admitted he “did not handle this right” and should have told President Biden and the public about his prostate cancer diagnosis.However, he said he didn’t order his staff to hide his condition.”We did not handle this right and I did not handle this right. I should have told the president about my cancer diagnosis. I take full responsibility,” Mr Austin said.The defence secretary was diagnosed in early December, had surgery on 22 December, but did not tell the president and other senior figures until days after complications forced him into intensive care on 1…

New archeological discoveries at a cave in Germany suggest that Homo sapiens — our own human species — arrived in cold, northern regions of Europe thousands of years earlier than previous evidence has shown. An international team of researchers found fossils of tools and bones at the “Ilsenhöhle” cave in Ranis that show a technological handover from the Neanderthals, our closest but extinct relatives, and early H. sapiens. The researchers also looked at animal remains at the site to study our ancestors’ diet and the possibility that they lived near or with hibernating, while adpating to cold climates.     They published three…

US actor Alec Baldwin on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter relating to the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film “Rust” in 2021. On January 19, Baldwin was indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter. Baldwin, a producer and actor on the film, was holding a Colt .45 during rehearsals for the low-budget Western in New Mexico when it discharged a live round, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.Alec Baldwin talks to investigators after fatal shooting on movie setImage: Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office/dpa/picture alliance Baldwin has repeatedly denied responsibility for the shooting, insisting that he…

The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday approved the latest review of its $44 billion (€40.7 billion) program with Argentina, allowing for the disbursement of $4.7 billion. The loan supports the new government of President Javier Milei, which is implementing massive austerity measures to get the country’s ailing economy back on track. “The new administration is taking bold actions to restore macroeconomic stability and begin to address long-standing impediments to growth,” IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said in a statement announcing the disbursement. She also said that “inconsistent policies of the previous government” had left a “difficult inheritance.”Mass strike tests Argentina’s radical…