DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH
Greece-North Macedonia ʼselfie diplomacyʼ warms relations Prime Minister Alex Tsipras was in the Macedonian capital, Skopje, on Tuesday for a landmark trip to Greeceʼs northern neighbor. "Today our Republic for the first time in its history is a hosting an official visit of a Greek Prime Minister," Prime Minister Zoran Zaev noted during a joint press conference. "We are starting to cover lost ground to build a deep friendship, not only between our governments, but especially between our people," Tsipras said. Tsiprasʼ visit comes just weeks after the former Yugoslav republic changed its name to North Macedonia, settling a name dispute that has been going on for almost 30 years. The two leaders pushed the name change — amid fierce opposition from nationalists from both nations —in exchange for assurance that Athens would stop thwarting Macedonian efforts to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union.
Germanyʼs crime rate fell to lowest level in decades in 2018 The crime rate in Germanyhas fallen for the second year in a row, according to the 2018 crime report that was published on Tuesday. Itʼs the lowest crime rate Germany has seen since 1992, but the Interior Ministry said the figures should be handled with caution — and did not provide any estimates of the number of unreported crimes. The main takeaways: The Federal Criminal Police Agency (BKA) detailed the number of reported criminal acts for 2018, including the following takeaways: 5.56 million criminal acts were recorded in 2018 — down 3.6 percent from the previous year.Robberies were significantly down, particularly home burglaries and pickpocketing cases.
77/2019 • 3 APRIL, 2019
UK to ask for Article 50 extension
German companies pledge support for Yad Vashem Holocaust Center
Work with opposition to take Brexit forward
The German companies Daimler, Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Bank, Volkswagen and soccer club Borussia Dortmund announced on Tuesday that they would donate €5 million ($5.6 million) to the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem on Tuesday. The companies view their effort as "a clear sign of our solidarity with the victims of the Holocaust, and as our responsibility, past and future, in the fight against racism and anti-Semitism." Yad Vashem houses the worldʼs largest collection of artefacts from the time of the Holocaust, and in light of the significant increase in objects donated to the institution new space will now be created for the archiving, research and restoration of those objects.
The UK government is to ask for an extension to Article 50 to find a way out of the Brexit impasse. Prime Minister Theresa May said she would work with the opposition to agree a plan to take the Brexit process forward.
Paris joins Hong Kong and Singapore as worldʼs most expensive city The French capital shares the title of the worldʼs most expensive place to live with Hong Kong and Singapore. Economic woes have made Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo and Istanbul much cheaper. Singapore is one of the worldʼs three most expensive cities for the sixth year running, according to The Economist Intelligence Unitʼs 2019 Worldwide Cost of Living Survey, released on Tuesday. The southeast Asian citystate shares the tag of the most costly place to live with Hong Kong and Paris. When the prices of more than 150 items were compared in 133
cities around the world, the French capital moved up one place in the rankings compared to last year. Parisʼ advance perhapsbolsters the central case of Franceʼs yellow vest protesters, who have blockaded major roads and cities during the past four months over the rising cost of living. The Swiss cities of Zurich and Geneva were ranked fourth and joint fifth respectively, followed by Japanʼs Osaka and Seoul in South Korea. Israelʼs second-most populous city, Tel Aviv, entered the Top 10 for the first time — the only Middle Eastern highranked representative in the survey.
Erwin Blumenfeld: Fashion photographyʼs surrealist innovator An imaginative visionary who claimed to have "smuggled art" into his body of work, photographer Erwin Blumenfeld often embraced mischief when he produced his images. His friendship with Dadaists impacted how he experimented with photography and his life experiences, which took the German-Jewish photographer from his Berlin birthplace to a
failed business in Amsterdam to internment camps in France and eventually to the United States, also fed into the dark visual subtitles of his images. While in Europe, Blumenfeld shot in black and white, but itʼs his kaleidoscopic photography that forms the subject of a new exhibition at Foam in Amsterdam: "Erwin Blumenfeld in Color — His New York Years."
German greenhouse gas emissions fall for first time in four years Germanyʼs Environment Ministry announced Tuesday that the country emitted 4.2 percent less carbon dioxide in 2018 than it did in 2017. The figure represents a 30.6 percent drop over 1990. It is the first significant reduction after fouryears of stagnation. Renewables played a major role in 38-million-ton reduction, which environmental authorities say avoided roughly 184 million tons of emissions compared to fossil fuels producing the same amount of energy. In all, Germany emitted 868.7 metric tons of carbon.
weather today BUDAPEST
8 / 18 °C Precipitation: 0 mm
77/2019 • 3 April, 2019
German satirist Jan Böhmermann sues Angela Merkel over Erdogan poem remark German comedian Jan Böhmermannis seeking an injunction against German Chancellor Angela Merkelover her comments about his controversial poem about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a Berlin court confirmed on Tuesday. Böhmermannʼs "Schmähgedicht" — or "defamatory poem" — sparked a diplomatic crisis between Germany and Turkey in 2016 and led to an investigation against the German comedian. Details of the case: A spokesperson with Berlinʼs Administrative Court told news agency DPA that Böhmermannʼs suit against Merkel includes two parts: First, he wants the court to bar her from publically repeating that his poem was "purposefully offensive."If the court rejects that motion, Böhmermann has asked the court to formally state that Merkelʼs assessment of his poem was unlawful.The Berlin court will hear the case on April 16 and is also due to deliver a verdict then as well.Merkel will not personally appear in court, but will be represented by her lawyer.
DFB President Reinhard Grindel steps down
No-deal Brexit ʼalmost inevitableʼ — the view from Europe The deadline for the UK to present the European Union with a new proposal for its exit from the bloc or crash out without a deal is fast approaching. A top EU official has warned that Britain is "facing the abyss." After the UK Parliament once again rejected alternative options to Prime Minister Theresa Mayʼs Brexit deal, European politicians were quick to react. The European Parliamentʼs Brexit coordinator said the UK has a "last chance" to break the deadlock on leaving the European Union when Parliament meets again on Wednesday or "face the abyss." Guy Verhofstadt said: "The House of Commons again votes against all options. A hard #Brexit becomes nearly inevitable. Jens Geier, a German member of the European Parliament, said that there was a "ridicu-
lous self-blockade in the British parliament" and that the EU could only agree to an extension of the Brexit deadline beyond April 12 if there was a second referendum. The EU has called an emergency summit for April 10 and warned that without a plan, Britain risks abruptly ending ties with its largest trading partner two days later, causing huge economic disruption. "With our British friends we have had a lot of patience, but even patience is running out," European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker told Italian television channel Rai 1.
Dissident Czech literary master Milan Kundera at 90 His "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" brought the Prague Spring to life for international readers. But the writer who went into exile in Paris in 1975 wants to be remembered as a French writer. Milan Kunderaʼs novels delve deeply into the the thoughts, feelings and beliefs of the individual. But his books also often portray relationships, and not only between two people. In his masterpiece, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Kundera tells the story of a love triangle against the backdrop of
the Prague Spring. The epic turned Kundera into an international literary star when it was published in 1984. By then, the dissident Czech novelist had been living in exile in Paris for almost a decade. His books had been banned in Czechoslovakia, and since the Soviet-backed government deprived him of citizenship in 1978, he has remained the countryʼs most famous exiled writer. Even after the Velvet Revolution, the fall of the Iron Curtain and the creation of the Czech Republic, the writer has not returned to live in his homeland.
The German FA (DFB) announced on Tuesday that the organizationʼs president, Reinhard Grindel, had resigned with immediate effect. The two DFB first vice presidents, Rainer Koch and Reinhard Rauball, are to lead the DFB on an interim basis until a new president is elected at a congress in September.
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Global property markets on the turn Boom times in many global real estate markets are turning to bust. Australia, several Asian countries and North America are starting to see large price corrections that are leaving speculators racing for cover. Australiaʼs housing market is witnessing its steepest annual fall in 15 years. In Sydney, prices are down 10 percent in a year. House prices in Sydney doubled in a decade on the back of Australiaʼs booming economy, with the median price still being an eyewatering 1,062,619 Australian dollars (€668,391, $762,391). But tighter lending criteria for mortgages have helped fuel the drop. Bangkokʼs condo market cools Bangkok condominiums have been popular with Chinese investors over the past five years, with prices rising at 5-10 percent per annum. A building boom has, however, left 40,000 units unsold, with another 53,000 new apartments to be launched this year. While properties in other Asian cities have doubled in value as a result of limited land space, the Thai capital has plenty of room to grow — and is.
Geely the car industryʼs rising ʼprofitability starʼ Ferdinand Dudenhöffer from the CAR Center Automotive Research at Germanyʼs Duisburg-Essen University called Chinese auto manufacturer Geely "the profitability star of the worldʼs car industry." A fresh study by the center points out that on average, a Geely car costs just €9,529 ($10,942), but the companysecures a 14.4 percent profit from revenues before tax and interest. Dudenhöffer says thatʼs a lot more than, say, the profit margins of foreign rivals BMW, Toyota or PSAOpel. The worldʼs largest carmaker, Wolfsburg-based Volkswagen, logs a profit margin of only 8.2 percent, the survey says. Geely is part of the Zhejiang Geely Holding,which also owns Volvo Cars, London EV-Taxi and Lotus.The holding has also acquired a 10 percent stake in Daimler. According to the CAR researchers, Geelyʼs rapid rise is based on its successful compact car platform, which it developed together with Sweden-based Volvo.