Author: DW

“I decide whether he took his chance or not,” Germany head coach Julian Nagelsmann had said before Germany’s 2-0 win over Luxembourg.  Eighty minutes later, the verdict on Leroy Sané’s return to the Germany team was in. “He had two good moments that led to goals,” Nagelsmann told RTL afterwards. “The first goal is exceptionally worked. His touch is brilliant and to play the cross so quickly on his right foot is really strong. He had a good game and that’s what it’s about.” Nagelsmann had spent much of the week facing questions about the selection of Leroy Sané, with many fans and some parts…

Several UN agencies responsible for supporting refugees and displaced people say their capacity to deliver services will be pushed to the limit as winter approaches in many of the most vulnerable encampments around the world. This week, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), World Food Programme and Food and Agriculture Organization each highlighted the pressure that aid cuts are putting on their food and shelter resources for millions of displaced people. The strain has been further spurred by the worsening situation in Sudan, Central and West Africa, and ongoing crises in the Middle East.Chad overwhelmed by Sudanese fleeing RSF: UN refugee…

She is an enduring global symbol of beauty, power and mystery who has fascinated Hitler, Beyoncé and Arab Spring activists alike: Queen Nefertiti, whose name translates to “the beautiful one has come,” is one of the most iconic figures of the ancient world. The Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten — who radically transformed Egyptian religion by promoting the worship of the single sun god, Aten — ruled more than 3,300 years ago. But Nefertiti’s current fame is largely due to the discovery of a painted stucco-coated limestone bust in 1912 by a German archaeological team led by Ludwig Borchardt. The bust was then brought to Berlin. Today,…

The US State Department said on Thursday that it was moving to designate four self-styled “antifa” (anti-fascist) groups as terrorist organizations, citing Germany-based Antifa Ost by name.  It also said it was pursuing three other violent antifa groups in Italy and Greece. The Italian group is known in English as the Informal Anarchist Federation/International Revolutionary Front, or as FAI/FRI, to use its Italian language acronym. The State Department translated the two Greek groups’ names as Armed Proletarian Justice and Revolutionary Class Self-Defense. What the State Department said about the move The State Department intended to designate all four groups as…

United States Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced a new US military operation that is aimed at targeting “narco-terrorists” in the Western Hemisphere. “Today, I’m announcing Operation SOUTHERN SPEAR,” the Pentagon boss declared on social media platform X on Thursday. “Led by Joint Task Force Southern Spear and @SOUTHCOM, this mission defends our Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our Homeland from the drugs that are killing our people,” he said. The Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) is one of the US military’s eleven unified combatant commands which is tasked with contingency planning, operations and security cooperation for 31 countries in…

Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid gained international renown by exploring his home country’s ills in films such as “Synonyms,” which won the Golden Bear in Berlin in 2019, and in “Ahed’s Knee,” which took Cannes’ Jury Prize two years later. He had sworn to himself that his next film would not be about Israel.  His script titled “Yes” was ready to go into pre-production; he was already considering potential Hollywood actors to star in the lead roles of two artists who sell their art, souls and bodies to the rich and powerful. But then October 7, 2023 happened. In ‘Yes’ Y. and Jasmine, parents…

The long-anticipated announcement came on November 11, when Google revealed details at a press conference in Berlin. Philipp Justus, the California-based tech giant’s managing director for Germany, said the company would invest €5.5 billion ($6.37 billion) over the next four years. That includes the construction of a new data center in near Frankfurt and expansions at existing sites in Munich, Frankfurt and Berlin.Google and other Big Tech companies need data centers across the world to handle the computing power needed for AI applicationsImage: Google Handout/dpa/picture-alliance German officials hailed the announcement as a boost for the country’s digital ambitions. “We want to make…

The plot thickens regarding the corruption scandal in Ukraine: Justice Minister German Galushchenko and Energy Minister Svitlana Grynchuk announced they will step down at the request of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Their resignations are among the fallout of revelations by Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) about a large-scale money laundering scheme in the energy and defense sectors. Both politicians have rejected the allegations against them. NABU launched its investigation in the summer of 2024. In particular, it probed the business of the state-owned company Energoatom, which operates four nuclear power plants in Ukraine. The operation was given the code name “Midas,” after…

The lower house of US Congress, the House of Representatives, on Wednesday voted to pass a spending bill, ending a federal government shutdown after 43 days of impasse. The bill was brought to the desk of US President Donald Trump just hours later. “So with my signature, the Federal government will now resume normal operations and my administration and our partners in Congress will continue our work to lower the cost of living, restore public safety, grow our economy and make America affordable again,” the president said as he signed the bill into law. The bill was passed in the upper house, the Senate,…

Germany’s infamous symbol of division, the Berlin Wall, split West Berlin — an isolated enclave of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) — from East Berlin, in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) for 28 years. Construction began in 1961 under the orders of the GDR’s communist leadership, following the flight of approximately 3 million people to the West. They were escaping a struggling economy, limited freedoms and government surveillance. To prevent further defection to the West, the East German government built a complex system of barriers, obstacles and guard towers along the 155-kilometer-long border. It was meant to be impenetrable — although…