Author: DW

Several referees, assistant referees and the chairman of an unnamed Super Lig club have had arrest orders issued against them by Turkish prosecutors following an investigation into alleged betting on top-level football matches. At least 18 of the 21 suspects have been detained following coordinated early morning raids, according to state-owned Anadolu news agency. The Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office said the 17 referees, who were arrested in Istanbul and 11 other provinces, are being investigated for a possible charge of “influencing the outcome of a match,” among others. The arrests and warrants come only a week after the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) suspended 149 referees and assistant referees following an investigation…

President Donald Trump on Friday announced that no US officials would attend the Group of 20 summit in South Africa later this month, citing the country’s treatment of white farmers. “It is a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa,” Trump posted on his Truth Social network. The Trump administration has long accused the South African government of discriminating against its white minority, citing alleged land seizures and violence. The South African government has denied that Afrikaners and other white South Africans are being persecuted. “No US government official will attend as long as these human rights abuses…

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Friday his country received an exemption from US sanctions on imports of Russian oil. Orban was speaking with reporters from Hungarian media outlets following his talks with US President Donald Trump. Trump was hosting Orban at the White House, with much of the visit having centered around Orban’s request that Trump provide Hungary with an exemption from US sanctions on purchases of Russian oil.  Hungary “received full exemption from sanctions” for Russian oil and gas delivered to Hungary from the Druzhba and TurkStream pipelines, Orban said. “We asked the president to lift the sanctions,”…

For more than two centuries, Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” has been the monster that won’t die — endlessly revived, re-stitched, and sent staggering back into the culture. The basic parable is evergreen: a gifted but blinkered scientist plays God, creating life out of reanimated body parts. Horrified by his own creation, he abandons it, and the rejected “creature” becomes the monster society fears it to be. That core has proved elastic enough to survive everything, from the cult classic 1930s monster movies starring Boris Karloff to sitcoms and kids’ cartoons. But most of what audiences think they know about “Frankenstein” comes from the movies, not Mary…

The artificial intelligence (AI) party is still in full swing, with tens of billions globally pouring into infrastructure, startups and attracting the best talent. Among the headline announcements this year: ChatGPT parent company Open AI, Softbank and Oracle pledged to invest $500 billion (€433 billion) in AI supercomputers, Open AI and chip giant Nvidia announced a $100 billion fund to maintain the United States’ dominance in advanced chips, while Chinese tech giants Alibaba and Tencent hiked investments to help speed up China’s ambition to lead AI by 2030. Since ChatGPT’s debut in November 2022, AI-related stocks have added an estimated $17.5 trillion in market value,…

“Scientia potestas est — Knowledge is power!” That phrase was coined by English philosopher Sir Francis Bacon at the end of the 16th century, when England was one of the world’s leading empires, both in terms of science and power politics. It was Bacon’s aim to point out to his contemporaries that knowledge is of strategic use — a motto that’s still valid today. The global research landscape is currently facing a turning point: According to a new survey published in the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” (PNAS) periodical, Chinese scientists had already taken the leading role in…

Cologne’s 19-year-old shooting star, Said El Mala was a surprise addition to Germany’s final World Cup qualifying squad, as head coach Julian Nagelsmann has picked his last squad of 2025 for his team’s final two World Cup qualifiers against Luxembourg and Slovakia. El Mala has played just nine Bundesliga games, remarkably only starting in two of those games, but four goals and two assists were enough to convince Nagelsmann he was worth taking a closer look at. The Krefeld-born winger, who was signed by Cologne in the summer of 2024 but spent last season on loan at third division city rivals Viktoria, has been a…

British police deployed around 700 officers in the city of Birmingham on Thursday ahead of Aston Villa’s Europa League football match against Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv.  Maccabi Tel Aviv fans are not attending the game, but nevertheless police anticipate protests in support of both Palestinians and Israelis following a contentious and uncertain few weeks in the build-up to the game as the supporter situation was settled.  West Midlands police said there would be a large police presence in the center of Birmingham, Britain’s second-largest city and home to a large Muslim population, and around the stadium, which is located…

The United Nations Security Council removed sanctions on Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Thursday, days before he was due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House. “The council is sending a strong political signal that recognizes Syria is in a new era since Assad and his associates were toppled,” US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz said after Thursday’s vote, referring to the ouster of longtime ruler Bashar Assad late last year. The resolution, drafted by the US, also lifted sanctions on Syrian Interiror Minister Anas Khattab. Of the 15 UNSC members, 14 countries voted in favor of the resolution…

In March 1938, paramilitary groups in leather boots and brown uniforms marched through the streets of Vienna. Part of Adolf Hitler’s Sturmabteilung (SA), they were celebrating Nazi Germany’s annexation of Austria. As two SA members hung a sign that read “I am a Jewish pig” around an old woman’s neck, a man pushed through the crowd to help her. A fistfight ensued but the man was lucky to have survived. Resisting the Nazis was dangerous then, and he landed in prison.  But he didn’t stay long behind bars because of his name. After all, Albert Göring was the brother of Hermann Göring, Supreme Commander of the…