Author: DW

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Washington will slap a 15% tariff on goods coming into the country from South Korea, a lower rate than the 25% duty he had threatened earlier.   The new levy puts South Korea on par with other US trade partners like Japan and the European Union, which have also secured trade deals with Trump that set a 15% tariff rate for their exports to the US. The new rate would also apply to South Korean automotive exports. Trump touted it as a “full and complete trade deal” between the US and South Korea. He…

With a deep rumble, the massive threshing wheel of the rice harvester pushes through the tightly packed green stalks. The plants vanish into the belly of the machine, where rice grains are separated from their husks and the straw is tossed back onto the field. A few workers watch the process from the field’s edge. After a few rounds, the combine harvester moves to the side and transfers the harvested rice through a long pipe into the bed of a waiting truck — then it heads back out again. It’s harvest time on the fields of Los Palacios, a sleepy…

India has the world’s largest tiger population, home to more than 3,600 wild tigers, which represent about 75% of the global wild tiger population, inhabiting an area of 138,200 square kilometers (53,360 square miles), according to the 2023 All-India Tiger Estimation Report, which contains figures from the country’s most recent tiger census.  Indian Prime Minister Narandra Modi at the time emphasized the “responsibility of doing even more to protect the tiger as well as other animals.” But despite the healthy numbers, stabilizing and securing the future of tigers requires continued and complex efforts. Why are tigers still at risk?  Deforestation, expansion of agriculture, urbanization and…

Skin cancers, of which more than 300,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, are preventable. And yet cases continue to rise, particularly in regions of the world where numbers have previously been low.  As well as avoiding direct sunlight and wearing protective clothing such as hats, long-sleeved shirts and pants, effective sunscreen products have been available for years. But as genuine concerns about product safety mix with myths and falsehoods on social media and elsewhere online, some people may move away from these cancer-preventing products. “The most important thing that I always want to emphasize in any of the research I’m doing is the importance…

Given the football World Cup was in the country just three years ago, the eight major global championships the country has hosted this year alone, and the Asian Games scheduled to take place in there in 2030, Qatar bidding for the 2036 Olympics feels like the next logical step for the Gulf country. The difference this time around is all about scale. There will be 36 sports on show in Los Angeles in 2028, with a variety of disciplines inside each sport. Then there is the political aspect of an Olympic Games, which is different to that of a football World Cup.…

Flash floods in Nigeria’s Adamawa state have killed at least 23 people and left thousands homeless, the UN humanitarian agency (OCHA) said Tuesday, adding that 11 other people are still missing. The flooding, which began on Sunday in five communities in the Yola area of the state, has so far displaced 5,560 people, according to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). A camp for those uprooted has been set up at Aliyu Musdafa College in Yola, and basic materials have been provided, NEMA said. “The presence of both governmental and non-governmental partners have been significant, contributing to the effective management of the humanitarian situation,” NEMA said…

Australia is banning YouTube for children under 16, widening the scope of a landmark social media law that aims to protect teenagers from harmful content online. “Young people under the age of 16 will not be able to have accounts on YouTube,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Wednesday. The Alphabet-owned video-sharing platform had been previously granted an exemption due its popularity with teachers. Last year, Australia was the first country to propose a ban on social media for teenagers.  Sites covered by the ban, such as Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, have protested the proposed ban. Why is Australia…

Jobseekers around the world are using artificial intelligence (AI) to write their CVs. All they have to do is copy and paste the job description and ChatGPT will spit out a standard, if dull, resume that includes all the jargon a firm is looking for. Other candidates are using AI tools to scan the internet for the right jobs. Some companies are using similar technology to screen applications, schedule meetings, do rudimentary interviews and rank candidates. Yet, it is unlikely that the top-tier AI talent now moving from startups to more established tech giants like Meta, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon or…

As far back as the 1960s, archaeologists had a feeling that Catalhoyuk was something special. And not just because the Neolithic settlement was one of the oldest continually inhabited places in the world. Researchers believed that women had an elevated societal position in Catalhoyuk, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site in contemporary Turkey. But that hunch was only based on figurines they had found and believed to represent Anatolian mother goddesses. Only with the methods of modern archaeology were researchers able to turn their feelings into fact: Society in the Catalhoyuk of 9,000 years ago was centered around women. An international research…

Imagine wearing a virtual reality headset and being shown moving avatars of human-looking faces, some of which appear to be sick with an infection. Would you expect your immune system to kick into action? About 250 people apparently did just that during a study conducted by scientists at the University of Lausanne and University of Geneva in Switzerland. And it appears their immune systems reacted to the mere sight of an infection. The participants were shown artificial images — avatars — some of which had rashes, others had a cough. Some looked healthy. Bear in mind, the participants were not presented with…