Author: DW

The curling competitions at the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, Italy, were mired in controversy this weekend after some athletes accused each other of cheating by illegally “double-touching” the stones as they were released down the ice. The most recent case came in a game between Britain and Germany on Sunday, with Scottish curler Bobby Lammie being accused of double-touching with his team eventually winning 9-4. How did the Winter Olympics’ curling controversy start? The issues began on Friday night when Sweden’s men’s team accused their Canadian opponents of the infraction, triggering a heated clash between players and a subsequent media frenzy.…

Nigeria’s Argungu Fishing Festival was officially back in action for its 61st iteration on Saturday in Argungu town in northwestern Kebbi state. The UNESCO-listed festival has not taken place for the past six years due to regional insecurity and funding shortages. Parts of Kebbi state have experienced jihadist attacks in recent years, with analysts blaming the Lakurawa terror group for the deadly violence.Fishermen prepare to begin their attempt to bag the biggest fishImage: Emmanuel Osodi/Anadolu/picture alliance Tens of thousands gather for drawcard festival But, the festival was again making waves as thousands of people descended on the area to attend…

Jeffrey Epstein is thought to have managed a large part of his assets through around 40 accounts at Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest bank, which has come back to haunt the Frankfurt-based institution. According to the German page of Wall Street Online, Deutsche Bank stock fell by 5.49% on February 4 after additional Epstein files detailing his criminal activities were made public. After the latest release of some 3 million documents, the United States Justice Department has said no more will be released. The convicted sex offender was in custody awaiting trial for further charges when he died in August 2019, officially by suicide. Money laundering, oligarchs, terrorists: How corrupt are the…

Almost seven years ago, Samer Tawk wondered whether he would walk again. “I was young and crazy and was skiing somewhere I shouldn’t have been in Lebanon, and I fell 14 meters (46 feet),” Tawk told DW. Now the cross-country skier is preparing to represent Lebanon at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. It is a long-awaited return to the world stage for the 27-year-old. In 2019, Tawk was looking forward to the Beijing Games in 2022 and his second Winter Olympics but then suffered serious injuries doing the sport he loved. “I was broken. I broke my hips in four places. My left leg was…

Love, inside the brain, is a chemical cocktail of many different hormones. Oxytocin — which is often called the “love hormone” — is believed to be the most important of all. But it is nothing more than an ancient chain of nine amino acids, produced by all mammals, with similar molecules found in fish, reptiles and worms. It helps induce contractions in childbirth, which is how it got its name: From the Greek oxys (swift) and tokos (birth).  “There’s nothing inherently social about oxytocin,” said Sarah Winokur, a neuroscientist at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. So how did oxytocin get its reputation…

Berlin’s new airport? Planned for 5 years, finished in 14. Stuttgart’s central station? Still under construction after 16 years. Hamburg’s concert hall, the Elbphilharmonie? Nine years instead of three. And the costs? Sometimes 10 times higher than promised. Or take Cologne’s opera house. Built in the 1950s as a symbol of modern democracy, it was a cultural jewel. By 2012, it needed renovation. The plan sounded simple: three years of work, reopening in 2015. Fast-forward to today: The building, which comprises the opera itself, a theater with two stages, and a children’s opera with its own stage, remains a construction site. Opera singer…

Even before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) handed down its ruling on Friday, disqualified Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladislav Heraskevych appeared to concede defeat. “It looks like this train has left,” the 27-year-old, draped in the Ukrainian flag, told reporters after emerging from a two-and-a-half-hour hearing in Milan. “I cannot do another race so it is done.” He said he had no plans to return to the sliding venue during these Winter Olympic Games but still felt he had done the right thing by trying to compete with a helmet adorned with portraits of Ukrainian athletes killed in Russia’s war…

“Mr. Watson, come here, I want to speak to you.” With these words, Alexander Graham Bell revolutionized communication. They were the first words to be intelligibly transmitted over distance — the first telephone call. On February 14, 1876, Bell applied for a patent for his invention, signaling the rise of spoken communication as the primary way people stay connected. Real-time, long-distance communication stunned those experiencing it for the first time. “A wonderful invention,” the Wichita City Eagle, a Kansas newspaper, wrote in 1877. It described an audience bursting into applause upon seeing a demonstration of the telephone. Alexander Graham Bell patented his design…

Heads of state and government from the EU gathered at an “informal retreat” at the Alden Biesen Castle in eastern Belgium on Thursday, in lieu of a full monthly leaders’ summit in Brussels. The talks will focus on reviving and streamlining Europe’s economy, with the leaders also set to discuss ways to counter threats from China, Russia and the US.  French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz sought to emphasize their areas of agreement while talking to reporters on arrival. This follows extensive media coverage on differences between the heads of the EU’s two biggest economies as the bloc tries to remain competitive on the…

Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified from the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics on Thursday for refusing to wear a different helmet than the one that honors athletes killed in the war with Russia. International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Kirsty Coventry informed him of his disqualification in a meeting early Thursday at the sliding venue. Coventry was waiting for Heraskevych at the top of the track when he arrived at around 8:15 a.m., about 75 minutes before the start of the men’s skeleton race. They went into a private area and spoke briefly. Apparently, however, Coventry was unable to convince Heraskevych to agree to…