DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH
Paris police arrest 4 suspects over planned attack The Paris prosecutorʼs office on Monday said three adults and a minor had been arrested over a planned attack on French security forces that was due to be carried out in the coming days. They were arrested on Friday as part of an investigation into terrorist conspiracy that opened on February 1, which is being handled by Franceʼs General Directorate for Internal Security. "Four people are being held over a plan to carry out an extremely violent terror attack," Interior Minister Christophe Castaner told reporters. The minor had previously been arrested in February 2017 at the age of 15 because he was trying to go to Syria to join the self-styled "Islamic State" group. He is serving a threeyear sentence with two years suspended at an educational facility.
Mystery whale found near Norway fuels Russian navy speculation
Norwegian fishermen found a beluga whale swimming through arctic waters wearing some sort of harness. Scientists linked the equipment to the Russian navy. Norwegian fisherman found a beluga whale outfitted with a mysterious, seemingly Russianmade harness swimming in arctic waters. Fishermen saw what seemed to be a tame beluga whale swimming between their boats last week. It appeared to be rubbing itself against boats in an attempt to remove a harness that was neatly strapped to its body, one of the fishermen told public broadcasterNRK. Eventually, one of the fishermen jumped into the frigid waters to remove the harness from the four-meter (13foot) mammal.
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Greeceʼs Yanis Varoufakis eyes EU job — sort of Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis is running in the EU elections
He wants to shake things up in Brussels with his leftist DiEM25 alliance — with the help of German voters.
Facebookʼs numbers donʼt convince everyone Facebookʼs latest financial figures have excited analysts. But cyberactivists like Markus Beckedahl say the company must do much more to combat the spread of fake news. Facebookʼs latest quarterly figures have business analysts and traders excited. Frank Geilfuss, chief economist at Löbbecke bank, told DW the numbers "they are excellent." Above all, Geilfuss said he was surprised by the reported increase in the number of active Facebook users per month. Over the past three months, about 60 million new users joined the online platform,
increasing total membership to 2.38 billion. And when all of Facebookʼs various services and platforms, like messaging service WhatsApp and the photo and video sharing platform Instagram, are taken into account, the company has some 2.7 billion open accounts. Of these, 2.1 billion access Facebookʼs services daily. Geilfuss said he welcomes the companyʼs broad range of products. Thatʼs why he called "Facebook a company with great potential for the future." After all, some 70% of Americans between the age of 15 and 35 use Instagram.
Plovdiv 2019: Historic moment for a historic city The ancient city of Plovdiv put on a party on Saturday nightcomplete with fireworks, light shows, concerts and speeches from dignitaries as it took up its mantle as European Capital of Culture. Having been an architectural hot spot during Roman rule, Bulgariaʼs second city has again taken center stage in the region. "This is a unique and historic moment for our city," said Plovdiv Mayor Ivan Totev before the opening ceremony. The artist collective Phase7 staged an impressive light show in front
of tens of thousands of visitors as performances by local musicians and dancers gave a foretaste of the European Capital of Culture 2019 motto: "Together." As Plovdiv residents combine to showcase their distinctive city, a number of headline events are planned throughout the year, including the Ayliak Art Parade in May on Europeʼs longest boulevard. The focus will be on slow, sustainable and harmonious living via green, creative products and innovations.
A Cold War solution for Serbia and Kosovo? Balkan leaders are in Berlin to "exchange opinions" with Germanyʼs Angela Merkel and Franceʼs Emmanuel Macron. The mini-summit is to focus on the bid to revive the talks between Belgrade and Pristina. Ahead of the Berlin summit, attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, and leaders of several countries in southeast Europe, DW learned of a new way for Germany to relaunch stalled talks between Kosovo and Serbia. Sources close to the Berlin government said that a solution for Belgrade and Pristina could be modeled on a 1972 agreement between West and East Germany. West German Chancellor Willy Brandt spearheaded the agreement aspart of his governmentʼs ostpolitik— or detente policy — towards the GDR and the Eastern bloc. The deal allowed the two German states to somewhat normalize their relations without formally recognizing each other.
Islamic State leader alBaghdadi appears in new video The leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, appeared in new video published by the Islamist terror group on Monday. In the 18-minute clip, a bearded man is seen sitting in casual conversation with three other people, whose faces are blurred. He discusses recent events, including the battle for Baghouz ending.IS was defeated there last month. He also praises the Sri Lanka attacks earlier this month, although only his audio is heard in that section. The video was published by the networkʼs al-Furqan media group on messaging service Telegram and initially picked up by the SITE intelligence group.
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98/2019 • 30 April, 2019
EU must curb corporate lobbying power — NGO LobbyControl on Monday accused the European Union of doing too little to combat corporate influence. Anew report by the German NGO said there are insufficient rules to limit such influence, which takes place through expert groups, meetings between civil servants and lobbyists or informal channels. "Corporations can draw on an incredible lobbying power to push through their interests," said the reportʼs author, Nina Katzemich. The report said EU member governments were some of the main lobbyists in Brussels, with many countries pushing for EU rules and decisions that reflect the interests of their national industries. Germany, it noted, had used its influence to weaken and delay rules on tax evasion and diesel emissions tests. The EU allows "corporations and the rich to move their assets to shadow financial centres and thus evade their tax responsibility," it said.
Trump quashes Cuba baseball agreement For decades, players from baseballmad Cuba have defected to the US in the hope of signing professional contracts. Finally, an Obama-era agreement promised an end to the days of risking everything for a baseball career. But then Trump came to town.
Bayer investors angry over plummeting share price German chemicals giant Bayer held its first shareholder meeting since it acquired US company Monsanto. Frustration over the Monsanto deal and Bayerʼs falling share price led shareholders to vote against Bayerʼs board.
Dull moments are rare things before Bayer shareholder meetings, with vociferous protests by environmental pressure groups and associations representing patients being the rule rather than an exception, as DW correspondent Ashutosh Pandey confirmed on Twitter. But this year, things are different in that the companyʼs largest shareholders are angry, too. Inside the Bonn Conference Center, the venue of the Bayer AGM on Friday, investors were fuming. "Bayer has choked on Monsanto,"
said Ingo Speich of German lender Deka bank. "The company risks being taken over and dismantled." Mark Tuemmler of investorsʼ federation DSW said 2018 was "a nightmare for shareholders." Bayerʼs share price fell last year by around 40% percent following its $63 billion (€56.5 billion) takeover of Monsanto in June — the biggest in German history. At €57 billion ($63.5 billion), its market capitalization is little higher than the price it paid to acquire Monsanto in the first place.
The inexhaustible, always contemporary Shakespeare "Shakespeare and Translation" was the subject of this yearʼs conference of the Weimar-based German Shakespeare Society. Each year around April 23, the birthday of William Shakespeare, the Shakespeare Society hosts a spring seminar. This yearʼs event, which took place from April 26-28, addressed the challenges of translating the works of the poet and playwright from Stratford-upon-Avon. At first glance, it may seem surprising that the Shakespeare Society is based in the eastern German city of Weimar, which Ger-
man poets Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller called home later in life. "The German Shakespeare Society was founded in 1864 and is, as far as we know, the oldest literary society in the world," explained the societyʼs president, Claudia Olk. "We always look forward to returning to where we were founded since Shakespeare was already one of the great classical writers, along with Goethe and Schiller." A statue commemorating the English poet stands not far from the conference location and is always a magnet for those attending.
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Sri Lanka seeks investment, but China questions linger You donʼt need to be an expert on international trade routes to look at a map and understandthat Sri Lankaʼs location is one of potentially serious economic advantage. The island nation — population 22 million — sits at the southern tip of India, almost as close to the Middle East and the Horn of Africa as it is to South East Asia. The value of this location has not been lost on its northern neighbor China.Under Xi Jinpingʼs so-called ʼBelt and Road Initiative,ʼ the Chinese government has pumped billions into Sri Lanka in the form of both foreign investment and loans in recent years. This reliance on Chinese money is part of a long-standing Sri Lankan problem. With a major trade deficit, as well as crippling levels of debt, the country needs foreign money. China has rushed to fill the gap more enthusiastically than anyone else. The current Sri Lankan government came to power in 2015, when it replaced former President Mahinda Rajapaksaʼs administration. His government had been unabashedly eager to seek Chinese money, regardless of the costs, and it left the incoming government with a major web of deals — and debt — to untangle.
Facebook, Instagram ban British far-right figure Tommy Robinson Facebook has taken harsh measures against British far-right personality Tommy Robinson, banning him from its platforms and closing his Facebook page and Instagram profile. Robinson is said to have violated Facebookʼs "community standards" by promoting "organized hate" and other prohibited behavior. Specifically, the company noted in a statement that Robinsonʼs pages had repeatedly broken its standards by "posting material that uses dehumanizing language and calls for violence targeted at Muslims." "This is not a decision we take lightly, but individuals and organizations that attack others on the basis of who they are have no place on Facebook or Instagram," the social media giant said. Anti-fascist and anti-racist organization Hope Not Hate welcomed the decision, referring to Robinson as "a far-right thug who uses his platform to bully, abuse and stir up division."