Author: DW

In 2023, the names of two women were on everyone’s lips: Barbie, and Taylor Swift.Both are represented at the Grammy Awards tonight. Swift’s music needs no introduction of course, while Barbie makes the cut thanks to the contributions to the film’s soundtrack by Billie Eilish and Dua Lipa (Ryan Gosling’s I’m Just Ken sadly didn’t make it a hat-trick, despite the Oscar nod).After cementing herself firmly as the biggest pop star on the planet with the start of her Eras tour last year, this year’s Grammys ceremony could be a record-breaker for Swift. Image: Barbie gets some Grammys action thanks…

Namibia’s President Hage Geingob has died aged 82.Vice-President Nangolo Mbumba announced Mr Geingob’s death in the early hours of Sunday morning. “At his side was his dear wife Madame Monica Geingos and his children,” Mr Mbumba said in a statement.He had been diagnosed with cancer and publicly revealed his diagnosis last month.His office announced he would be travelling to the US for treatment, but would return to Namibia on 2 February. Mr Geingob became president in 2015 and was serving his second and final term in office.He underwent an aortic operation last year, and in 2014 he revealed that he…

The confirmation of Michelle O’Neill as first minister of Northern Ireland is historic.She is the first representative of the nationalist community, committed to uniting Ireland, to become the leader of the Stormont Assembly, an integral part of the devolved United Kingdom. Ms O’Neill is also complemented in the south by another woman, Mary Lou McDonald, the president of their party, Sinn Fein, and the leader of the opposition in the Irish parliament.As polls stand Ms McDonald is on course to be the first woman prime minister of Ireland.The two leaders often appear together and were pictured on newspaper front pages…

The US and Britain have launched a fresh wave of strikes against 36 Houthi targets in Yemen.The further wave of assaults on 13 locations are designed to further disable Iran-backed groups that have attacked American and international interests in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, according to US officials. Launched by ships and fighter jets, these strikes on Yemen follow a US air assault on targets in Iraq and Syria on Friday.That assault targeted other Tehran-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in retaliation for the drone strike on Jordan that killed three US troops last weekend.Middle East airstrikes latest:…

Senegalese President Macky Sall on Saturday announced an indefinite delay to the February 25 presidential election, the first time the West African country has postponed a national vote. In a televised address, Sall told the nation he had signed a decree abolishing a previous measure that set the date. The decision follows a dispute between the National Assembly and the Constitutional Court over the rejection of some candidates. The delay came just hours before official campaigning was due to start, with little more than three weeks until the vote. The decision pushes Senegal into uncharted constitutional waters that some opposition and civil society groups warn…

At least 19 people have been killed by forest fires in central Chile that have destroyed about 1,100 homes. The death toll could rise as rescue teams reach the most heavily affected areas in the Valparaiso region, officials said on Saturday. Chile’s interior minister Carolina Toha said there were 92 forest fires burning in the centre and south of the country, affecting 43,000 hectares.She said authorities’ biggest concern was that some of the fires were developing very close to densely populated areas, “with the very high potential to affect people, homes and facilities”.Wildfires are not uncommon in Chile over summer. Fires during…

Some might have thought that support for these marches would have waned by now.They’ve been going for nearly four months and this is the eighth one. But on today’s evidence, those perceptions would be very wide of the mark.Follow live: Iraq warns of ‘disastrous’ consequences after US strikesFor 25 minutes, we watched as a continuous crowd passed us on Regent Street. We started our clock when the front of the line set off and they were going at quite a pace.But even after that much time, we still couldn’t see the finish – just a seemingly endless sea of Palestinian…

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi were each sentenced to seven years in prison on Saturday after their 2018 marriage was found to have violated the law, officials said. The verdict was announced a day after the trial ended, which the 71-year-old Khan and his family insist was politically motivated. Saturday’s conviction is Khan’s fourth since 2022, when he was ousted from power in a parliamentary vote of no confidence. He faces more than 150 legal cases related to his time in office.Supporters of Imran Khan, a former cricket star, have staged multiple rallies against the dozens of legal cases…

Facebook, the world’s largest social media network, is 20 years old. More than 3 billion people are active on their Facebook page at least once a month — more than one in three people on the planet. That’s quite the success story. But just a few days before its 20th anniversary, any celebratory mood was dampened when Facebook founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced harsh criticism at a hearing before the US Senate. “You have blood on your hands,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham shouted at Zuckerberg. “You have a product that’s killing people.” The subject of the hearing on January 31 was the failure of major…

The White Lotus has dropped actor Milos Bikovic, after Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused him of supporting the Russian invasion.The Serbia-born star, 36, is understood to have been cast as a Russian yoga-loving, life enhancement mentor at the hotel in which the third series is set. His casting was initially announced by HBO on 12 January.HBO, which makes the hit series, confirmed it had decided to part ways with the actor and would be re-casting the role, in a story first published by Deadline.The move follows a social media post shared by Ukraine’s foreign ministry on 24 January which…