Author: DW

When people think Britain, they may think red buses, the Beatles or Buckingham Palace, while others may plump for fish ‘n’ chips, the pub or a stiff upper lip. Arguably the most iconic image, though, is the traditional red telephone box, which has managed to live on despite its rare usage in modern Britain. Indeed, the numbers of phone booths across the UK has reduced fivefold in recent years, according to British Telecom (BT), with just 3,000 traditional red kiosks remaining. Taking pictures with the phone box has become commonplace among social media usersImage: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire/empics/picture alliance On life support Under existential threat — originally due to cellphones, and…

What is the PWHL and why has it been established? The Professional Women’s Hockey League aims to give the world’s best women’s players the opportunity to pursue the game full time. There are six founding teams, based in New York, Toronto, Boston Montreal, Ottawa, and Minnesota. “Professional” women’s players in the past have generally had to hold down outside jobs to make ends meet. The new league follows the collapse of one of its predecessors, the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) in 2019 and a strike by 200 players who refused to join the other league at the time, the…

A court in Bangladesh on Sunday sentenced Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus to six months in jail for labor law violations in what his supporters called a politically motivated prosecution. Yunus and three colleagues from Grameen Telecom, one of the firms he founded, were accused of violating labor laws when they failed to create a workers’ welfare fund in the company. The four have denied the charges and were granted bail pending appeals. Yunus told DW immediately after the verdict that he would continue to serve the people of his country. “The verdict against me is contrary to all legal precedent and…

The 2020s has been a bumpy decade so far for the global economy. On December 31, 2019 — the literal eve of the decade — the World Health Organization was notified about a concerning cluster of mysterious pneumonia cases in China. By March, the COVID-19 pandemic had locked up the world and would take a sledgehammer to global economic growth over the next two years. Just when the world had emerged from that crisis, a new catastrophe unfolded with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Oil prices surged, fueling inflation. Supply chains, already upended by the pandemic, were thrown into further disarray.…

The Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) said on Sunday that the incumbent President Felix Tshisekedi had secured more than 73% of the vote in the country’s December 20 election —  versus around 18% for his nearest challenger, businessman Moise Katumbi. The DRC’s Constitutional Court is expected to announce definitive results on January 10. In the meantime, the news of a likely second term in office for Tshisekedi triggered a mixture of optimism and apprehension amongst Congolese — but a deeper analysis revealed a nation grappling with a burning desire for change. Many Tshisekedi supporters, such as Merveilles Kaleka, a student in Kinshasa, believe that a second term will…

Ryanair has warned its business is likely to be hit in the short term after a string of online travel agents removed the airline from their online listings.The Irish firm accused brands including Booking.com, Kiwi and Kayak of acting like “pirates” after they suddenly wiped its flights from their websites last month. Ryanair said it was likely to reduce its load factor – the percentage of available seats filled – by up to 2% in January.The airline also warned that revenue from tickets would be hit in the short term while it responds by “making more low fares available” on…

Space exploration is set to take another leap forward in 2024, including missions to bring us closer to once again landing astronauts on the moon. DW explains what else is in store. Source link

Taylor Swift has set a new record yet again. This week, the singer overtook music legend Elvis Presley as the solo artist with the most weeks at the top of the US album charts. This was announced by the music magazine Billboard, which publishes the charts. Her current album “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” is number 1 in the US album charts for the fifth consecutive week. This means that the 34-year-old has had an album at the top for a total of 68 weeks, breaking Presley’s record of 67 weeks. However, the Beatles remain overall record holders, with their albums having spent…

Spanish star player Jenni Hermoso Tuesday appeared for a preliminary court hearing as part of aninvestigation into Luis Rubiales’ sexual assault case. Hermoso, who testified behind closed doors, told the court that the kiss she received from Rubiales  was “at no point consensual.”  She has previously stated Rubiales, who at the time served as the head of Spain’s football federation, and his staff tried to pressure the footballer and her family to downplay the incident.  “Everything went well,” Hermoso told reporters after her testimony. “The judicial process will continue its course, and thanks for the support that many of you had given to me.” In September last…

Ukraine’s president and foreign minister have both condemned the overnight air- and missile strikes, and called for more military assistance from partner countries.  “Another attack by Russian savages. Almost a hundred missiles of various types. At least 70 missiles were shot down. Nearly 60 of them were intercepted in the Kyiv area,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on social media in English, along with an accompanying video in Ukrainian.  “Patriot, IRIS-T, and NASAMS — each of these systems has already saved hundreds of lives,” he said, referring to more advanced air defense systems donated to Ukraine by NATO members or other…