Deutsche Welle

At some point today, you’ve probably used an appliance that relies on HFCs, also known as refrigerants. They're many times more potent than CO2, which is why the EU, US and others are phasing them out. Planet A reporter Tim Schauenberg went undercover to explore the black-market boom in these gases now worth hundreds of millions of euros in Europe alone.

Women make up half the population in Nigeria but hold a fraction of political power. How can they reshape the country's political future — and what still stands in their way?

As the EU publishes its digital sovereignty plans, we've come up with a little techno-utopian package of our own. Our guest throughout is tech and solar-punk author Cory Doctorow: join us as we explore French AIs, Finish super-computers, Croatian Wikipedia and all the reasons why this might just be the moment in which things start to change for the better.

Ethiopia's election was hailed as proof of democracy — but conflict, insecurity and disrupted polling kept millions from voting. Was the vote free and fair? We break down the results, tensions and what it means for the country.

Senegal faces a power struggle as President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and his ally-turned-opponent Ousmane Sonko part ways. Who's really in charge — and what does it mean for citizens amid a deepening debt crisis?

Ukraine is scaling drone warfare at an unprecedented pace, using low cost systems to strike far beyond the frontlines and shift the fight from manpower to machines. A fast growing, decentralized production network, backed by the state and shaped by battlefield feedback, is driving this transformation.

In eastern DRC, the battle against Ebola is being fought alongside ongoing conflict. As violence restricts access, fuels mistrust, and disrupts lifesaving care, health workers face a daunting challenge: containing a deadly virus in one of the world's most insecure regions. DW spoke to DRC's Foreign Minister, Therese Kayikwamba, and Jean Kaseya, Director General of Africa CDC.

Berlin Briefing host Michaela Küfner unpacks the Pope's call for responsible AI regulation and asks what Germany’s plans are to avoid a sell-out to big tech interests. She is joined by tech regulation expert Matthias Kettemann from the Leibniz Institute for Media Research and DW's tech policy correspondent Maximiliane Koschyk.

A new generation of chemical recycling plants promises to turn hard-to-recycle plastics back into new packaging and keep waste out of landfills and incinerators. But as Europe pours millions into the technology, critics are questioning whether it can really deliver on those promises. This investigation examines the gap between the industry’s recycling claims and the reality on the ground.

Is it xenophobia, a migration crisis, or a failure of African leadership? After South Africa's foreign minister insisted the country remains safe for Africans, Ghana's High Commissioner to South Africa, Benjamin Quashie, joins us Under The Baobab to respond.