Author: DW

Employees at Ukraine’s well-known investigative outlet Bihus.Info have been covertly wiretapped and filmed. A video leaked online, purportedly showing team members consuming illegal substances at a New Year’s party, has caused a scandal. The video was released on January 16 on a little-known YouTube channel called Narodna Pravda (Ukrainian for “national truth”). It ostensibly also contained snippets of private conversations between Bihus.Info employees as they discussed buying drugs. The video has since been removed. A group of journalists founded the investigative outlet was founded in 2013 under the aegis of editor-in-chief Denys Bihus. One of its sensational reports uncovered the financing…

A general strike in Argentina on Wednesday is being seen as the first major challenge facing the country’s new leader, President Javier Milei. Thousands of people embarked on a 12-hour strike in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires, protesting Milei’s cost-cutting measures.Argentine President Javier Milei faces the first national strike in just 45 days of holding officeImage: Luis Robayo/AFP Protests countrywide The strike organized by the largest umbrella union — the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) — has impacted various sectors, from banking through to transportation. “People are angry… nobody can deny it,” said CGT co-leader Hector Daer. Protesters carried placards…

Invading Russian troops – arms up, faces scared – drown in a river in the frontline city of Kherson as a Ukrainian soldier watches on, rifle raised.The image, drawn by a child, is among a line of pictures, including of jets, tanks and corpses, that illustrates Ukraine’s lost childhood after almost two years of full-scale war. They hang on a wall inside a school – shut for normal lessons – where a charity offers support to the dwindling number of children in Kherson whose parents have yet to flee.One six-year-old boy, looking at the sketches, says his favourite is of…

Scientists have successfully impregnated a rhino using embryo transfer for the first time, marking a significant breakthrough in conservation efforts to save the world’s population of the northern white rhinoceros. Only two northern white rhinos are left on Earth: a mother named Najin, 33 years old, and her daughter Fatu, age 23. Both live in Kenya at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, where they are closely guarded. The vast majority of the population of the endangered animal was killed by poachers, who reduced the population from around 500 to 15 in the 1970s and 1980s. At a press conference in Berlin on Wednesday,…

South Korea plans to build the world’s largest semiconductor cluster in Gyeonggi Province by investing around $470 billion (€430 billion) over the next 23 years into the massive production park in partnership with major electronics companies Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. To support the plan, the government has proposed measures including tax incentives for investments and initiatives to boost competitiveness. South Korea aims to increase self-sufficiency in essential materials, parts, and equipment for chip production to 50% by 2030. South Korea currently dominates the production of DRAM and NAND memory chips, which are used for managing and storing data on…

The US embassy in London has criticised new research by an American academic that suggested the perfect cup of tea needed a pinch of salt and a squeeze of lemon.Michelle Francl, a professor of chemistry at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, also gave less controversial advice – such as using short, stout mugs to keep tea hotter as they have less surface area. Other suggestions she also made in comments to The Guardian included that both the mug and milk should be warmed, with the latter added in only after pouring the tea.Professor Francl also said loose leaves were preferable,…

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, the man tasked with modernizing the Bundeswehr, Germany’s armed forces, has been in office for a year. He’s the most popular minister in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s highly unpopular government. But, shortly before the end of his first year on the job, plans for a major reform of Germany’s armed forces, known as the “Zeitenwende” (turning point), were scaled back — again. In the federal budget for 2024, the government will barely reach NATO’s  spending target. That’s been heavily criticized by the largest opposition party, the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU). NATO countries have committed themselves to spending…

Train drivers in Germany on Wednesday began their longest strike yet in an ongoing labor dispute with Deutsche Bahn (DB) that is set to impact thousands of passengers and could dent the economy with a loss of up to €1 billion ($1.1 billion). On Monday, the German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) had called for a six-day strike. The planned industrial action will run from 2:00 a.m. local time (0100 GMT) Wednesday until 6 p.m. on Monday for passenger traffic. The strike for freight trains began a day earlier. German train strike begins, DB implements provisional timetable Deutsche Bahn confirmed on Wednesday morning…

This week, the EU will hold a second round of talks on a free trade agreement with Thailand, with Bangkok keen on negotiations being wrapped up by early 2025. Thailand’s economy, which has been languid for years, could be given a shot in the arm by the trade pact. The pact would also solidify the EU’s pivot to Southeast Asia, with Brussels already having secured trade deals with Vietnam and Singapore. Other agreements with Indonesia and the Philippines are currently under negotiation. The latest discussions between the EU and Thailand are likely to be tense. Both sides want to protect…

A terrorist who killed three people in a park in Reading described himself as a “boy soldier” who fought in the Libyan civil war, an inquest has been told.Khairi Saadallah stabbed to death three men who were meeting in Forbury Gardens, during a brief relaxation in lockdown rules in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.James Furlong, Joseph Ritchie-Bennett and David Wails were killed and three others injured during a 30-second rampage on 20 June 2020.Saadallah, who was later handed a whole life tariff, had viewed material on the September 11 attacks and was heard yelling “Allahu Akbar” [god is great]…