DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH
Eurovision Song Contest 2018 results: Israel wins Millions around the world watched as Netta of Israel claimed victory at the Eurovision Song Contest. A dynamo in a kimono, she delivered a message that fit the Eurovision theme of diversity. Israelʼs Netta Barzilai won the 63rd Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday night in Lisbon, Portugal. After the announcement and before a repeat performance of her winning song "Toy," Netta cried out to a wildly applauding audience, saying: "Thank you for accepting differences between us. Thank you for celebrating diversity!” Performers from 26 countries took the stage for the grand final of the annual music competition, which at one point was interrupted by a stage invasion. An intruder, now in police custody, leapt onstage during the performance and tried to wrest the microphone from singer SuRie of the United Kingdom. The countryʼs delegation was given the option to have her perform again, but they declined.
US border authorities block Central American migrant caravan US officials have told would-be asylum seekers at the Mexican border that the crossing is too full to process their cases. The migrants have already drawn the wrath of US President Trump during their trek through Mexico.More than a hundred migrants from Central American countries have camped out at the US-Mexican border after being told by US border inspectors on Sunday that a crossing facility had no capacity for them. It was not immediately clear whether the migrants, who have traveled 3,200 kilometers (2,000 miles) through Mexico to the border at Tijuana, would be turned back or allowed in later.
108/2018 • 15 MAY, 2018
Paris knife attack: Arrest made in Strasbourg The assailant was shot dead by police after killing one person and wounding four
Strasbourg police have detained for questioning a man said by a judicial source to be a friend of Saturdayʼs Paris knife attacker.
Times change but German obsession with cash endures "Do you accept cards?" If you’re asking in Germany, there’s a good chance that the answer is no. The country has a curiously low cashless rate. Can the European economic powerhouse’s aversion to plastic payment continue? If there is a place where cash truly ought to be king, itʼs in one of the ubiquitous late night corner shops (known in German as a Späti) seen on practically every street of the German capital Berlin. Yet in recent times, Türkan Dogar brought a card machine into his small shop in the south-east of the city. He has to pay a monthly fee for it, but itʼs negligible enough that he doesnʼt recall exactly how much. "Customers were asking
regularly if we accepted cards, so in the end I got it because itʼs good for business," he says. If people spend less than €10 ($11.89) in his shop, they can still pay with card but then they have to pay a 50-cent surcharge. Yet a stroll around the neighborhood quickly points to Germanyʼs somewhat complicated relationship with plastic payment. Around the corner, at Erolʼs bicycle repair shop, card bearers are given short shrift. "Cash-only here," says Erol as he stands beside an upturned bicycle in his navy overalls. "I like cash. Itʼs warmer. If people donʼt have it, they can go to the cash machine and come back. I donʼt care!" he says with a laugh. "It works for me."
German university hospital defends auto firmsʼ nitrogen dioxide test ethics No experiments on animals or humans can take place in Germany without a go from an authorized ethics committee. Dr. Thomas Kraus from Aachen University Hospital says this was the case in the most recent NO2 scandal. The European Research Group on Environment and Health in the Transport Sector (EUGT) "did not impinge in any way on the nitrogen dioxide (NO2) research it commissioned Aachen University Hospital to do," Professor Thomas Kraus from the
hospital told the German press agency DPA on Monday. The EUGT is a now defunct organization that was funded by German carmakers Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW plus partsmaker Bosch, thus raising questions of possible conflicts of interest. In 2013, 25 healthy volunteers were exposed to NO2 pollution for three hours, Kraus said. "None of them had any negative health effects," he went on, adding that the tests were meant to measure the impact of pollutants in the workplace.
Famous WWII Remagen bridge towers up for sale Buyers interested in WWII history and who arenʼt afraid of rolling up their sleeves are in luck. German authorities are selling part of the destroyed Ludendorff Bridge or "Bridge at Remagen" to the highest bidder. Two towers on the eastern end of a World War II era bridge — immortalized by the 1969 US film "The Bridge at Remagen" — are up for sale, German authorities confirmed on Monday. The Federal Railway Property Fund (BEV) is selling the ruins located on the side of where the bridge formerly stood across the Rhine from Remagen. "There are already several interested parties," BEV spokesman Jürgen Rothe told news agency dpa. The German newspaper Rhein Zeitung first reported on plans to sell the towers. The listing did not set a price for the bridge towers, rather stating that they will go to the highest bidder. Interested buyers have until May 18 to make their offers.
Catholic cardinal rebukes Bavaria for ordering crosses in state buildings Cardinal Reinhard Marx has said directing all state buildings to hang crosses amounts to "expropriating the cross in the name of the state." Bavarian Premier Markus Söder sparked nationwide criticism for the move. The head of the German Bishopsʼ Conference has sharply criticized the premier of the southern German state of Bavaria for ordering Christian crosses to be hung in all state buildings.
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