Author: DW

UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin shocked observers on Thursday by announcing that he intended to step down when his current term in office ends in 2027. “I have decided, let’s say around six months ago, that I’m not planning to run in 2027 anymore,” Ceferin told reporters shortly after the UEFA Congress in Paris had concluded. “The reason is that after some time every organization needs fresh blood, but mainly because I was away for my family for seven years now and I will be away for another three.” Championing the change His announcement came shortly after the council had approved…

A new conservative party set up in South Korea ahead of the general election in April has provoked debate about the future of the nation’s military by calling for women to complete compulsory military service if they want to subsequently take up careers in the police, fire brigade or the corrections service.  At present, all able-bodied Korean men are required to serve at least 18 months in one of the branches of the nation’s armed forces, but all female members of the military are volunteers. That policy has been sustainable for the armed forces until now but — faced with a…

Southeast Asia has published its long-awaited artificial intelligence (AI) governance and ethics guidelines that map out a voluntary and light-touch vision of how national governments can constrain the worst aspects of this new technology yet profit economically from its advance. The ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed to the guidelines, which were first drafted last year, at the 4th ASEAN Digital Ministers’ Meeting in Singapore earlier this month. Southeast Asia’s more business-friendly approach to AI regulation could cause some upset within the European Union (EU). The bloc has been lobbying for other parts of the world…

The US military on Thursday confirmed the deaths of five Marines after a helicopter crash in southern California.  US authorities said a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter went down on Tuesday night in Pine Valley, a hilly remote area east of San Diego.  What we know so far The Marine Corps said efforts to recover the remains of the crash victims were underway and that an investigation had been launched. The aircraft was flying from Creech Air Force Base in Nevada to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar near San Diego. “It is with a heavy heart and profound sadness that I share the loss of…

Medal winners at the upcoming Paris Olympics and Paralympics will return with a piece of the Eiffel Tower.Organisers unveiled the gold, silver and bronze medals at the iconic monument on Thursday, saying each will “be adorned with a small piece of Paris and a symbol of the country of France”. Image: A Paris 2024 Olympic Games gold medal. Pic: Reuters Image: A Paris 2024 Paralympic Games gold medal. Pic: Reuters The decision came from a desire to make the medals for podium finishers “unique” and link the Games with symbols of France.”There was a huge amount done to try to…

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently said the money German taxpayers currently spend on accommodating Ukrainian war refugees could be administered from Kyiv by his government. “It would be better if Germany supported Ukrainians by including this money in our budget, and Ukraine would distribute the money depending on where the person is staying,” Zelenskyy told the German broadcaster ARD on January 28. Zelenskyy said some Ukrainians living in Germany were receiving financial assistance from both governments. He added that some refugees had taken their savings with them from Ukraine, depriving the country not only of citizens but also their money for its…

Banned Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva has blamed her positive doping test on a strawberry dessert prepared by her grandfather on a chopping board he used to crush his pills.The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has now published its full report on its verdict, justifying its ban on the athlete, who claimed the food was inadvertently contaminated by her grandfather’s heart medication. The word “strawberry” featured 43 times in the document detailing why the judges rejected her argument.Valieva was 15 when she found herself at the centre of a doping scandal.News she had tested positive for the banned substance…

Russia’s main election authority has banned an anti-war candidate from standing in the country’s upcoming presidential election.Boris Nadezhdin, a local legislator in a town near Moscow, was required by law to gather at least 100,000 signatures in support of his candidacy. But the Central Election Commission said more than 9,000 signatures submitted by Mr Nadezhdin’s campaign were invalid, which was enough to disqualify him.Russia’s election rules state that potential candidates can have no more than 5% of their signatures thrown out.Follow live: New Wagner leader makes first video statement since Prigozhin death Mr Nadezhdin, 60, has called for a halt…

The German-French writer, sociologist, and  political scientist Alfred Grosser has died at the age of 99. The appeasing language of diplomacywas not his cup of tea — and yet Alfred Grosser was a great diplomat, especially when it came to Franco-German relations. Honesty and straightforwardness were among Grosser’s essential qualities. At the beginning of interviews, he used to ask interviewees one question about their report: “How long will it end up being?” And when he was told that the interview would be cut to a three-minute TV report or to a short article, he would smile mischievously and say: “Well, then…

The caretaker prime minister of Pakistan has told Sky News there is no attempt to “target a specific party or group” amid claims of pre-poll rigging and candidate harassment.Speaking on the eve of the election, Anwaar ul Haq Kakar did acknowledge they couldn’t totally guarantee free and fair elections. “Absolute is a very relative term and it’s a very subjective term,” he said.”What I can assure you is that despite all our shortcomings and flaws which there are in the system, there is no systematic pattern or institutional pattern where we are targeting a specific party or group.” Image: Pic:…