DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH
Iranian protesters attack Islamic school as sanctions loom Anti-government demonstrators in several cities stretched into a fourth day in Iran, with protesters attacking an Islamic seminary west of the capital, Tehran, according to Iranian news agencies and social media reports on Saturday. The protests come amid looming US sanctions, many of which are set to be reimposed on Tuesday. Hundreds took to the streets across the country Friday night, including in Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad and Karaj, according to videos on social media. The protesters also reportedly attacked a Shiʼite Muslim seminary in Eshtehard, 100 km (62 miles) west of Tehran, according to the semi-official Fars news agency. "At 9 pm (Friday) they attacked the school and tried to break the doors down and burn things," Fars quoted the head of the school in the town of Eshtehard, Hojatoleslam Hindiani, as saying.
Bangladesh students paralyze Dhaka with road safety protests Thousands of students brought the capital of Bangladesh to a standstill on Saturday, marking the seventh consecutive day of mass protests calling for road safety reforms. Students as young as 13 participated in the protests, blocking roadways and performing impromptu checks to ensure drivers had official documents allowing them to operate a vehicle. Read more:Is Bangladesh becoming an autocracy? "We donʼt want to be killed [by a] road crash," 10th grader Mohammad Selim told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur news agency. Last week, two teenagers were killed and nine others injured when a speeding bus plowed into a crowd. The deadly road accident triggered protests across Dhaka and other parts of the country.
178/2018 • 06 AUGUST, 2018
Denmark fines first woman for violating ʼburqa banʼ The ban, which took effect on August 1, prohibits full-face Islamic veils in public places
A 28-year-old woman has been fined for wearing a niqab at a local shopping center, in violation of a controversial new law.
Eiffel Tower to reopen after strike over long queues The Eiffel Tower - closed to visitors since Wednesday afternoon - is to reopen on Friday after workers went on strike over unacceptably long queues at the Paris landmark. Workers walked out in protest at a new access policy that has seen separate lifts allocated to visitors with prebooked tickets and those who buy them on site. Workers walked out in protest at a new access policy that has seen separate lifts allocated to visitors with pre-booked tickets and those who buy them on site. At the same time, the tower now sets aside half of daily tickets for internet customers, up from just 20 percent previously.
Workers said the changes resulted in lopsided queues that could extend to three hours for those waiting to pay for tickets, and up to an hour for internet customers who are supposed to have reserved time slots. But late Thursday, management and unions said that the tower would reopen on Friday. Earlier workers had demanded more flexibility in managing the thousands hoping to reach the top of the "Iron Lady" each day during the peak summer tourist season. The towerʼs operator said, however, that queues were no worse than before, even as visitor numbers have risen, with more than 6.2 million tickets sold last year.
Carlo Chatrian: The festival is bigger than the person As always, the atmosphere is full of energy at the beginning. People look forward to watching the new films and meeting with guests. The opening film was the French comedy Les Beaux Ésprits paired with a Laurel and Hardy slapstick film from 1929. Is humor this
Israel intercepts Gaza-bound boat ʼviolating blockadeʼ The Israeli military on Saturday said its forces have intercepted a Swedishflagged activist boat attempting to breachits naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. The ship, named Freedom, said it was attempting to deliver humanitarian goods, including medical supplies. "The ship was monitored and was intercepted in accordance with international law," the military said in a statement. "The [military] clarified to the shipʼs passengers that they are violating the legal naval blockade and that any humanitarian merchandise can be transferred to Gaza through the Port of Ashdod." Earlier this week, the Israeli navy intercepted a Norwegian-flagged activist boat. The boat, called al-Awda, formed part of a flotilla that left from Scandinavia in mid-May and included the boat Free‐ dom.
Confidential UN report: North Korea continuing nuclear, missile program North Korea has violated a number of sanctions by the United Nations, most notably continuing their nuclear weapons and missile programs, a 149page confidential UN report said Friday. The report comes days after reports suggestingthe North is developing new missiles. The United Statesʼ top diplomat Mike Pompeo called on countries to maintain pressure on the North and not violate UN sanctions.
weather today BUDAPEST
yearʼs main motto? We try to have more
than one thread or topic. But for sure – we call it lightness, because itʼs not just about humor. It is a lightness that doesnʼt counteract the will to talk about the world we are living in, with all its conflicts, contrasts and frictions.
22 / 29 °C Precipitation: 0 mm
178/2018 • 06 August, 2018
Germany: Mistakenly deported Afghan asylumseeker to return soon An Afghan asylum-seeker, who was mistakenly deported by German authorities, could return to the country in the coming days, German news outlet Spiegel Online has reported. All the necessary documents have been prepared to ensure a smooth return of the asylum-seeker, Spiegel reported, citing government sources. Nasibullah S., who had been living in a migrant shelter in Neubrandenburg in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, was deported along with 68 other Afghans back to Kabul last month, although the legal proceedings surrounding his asylum case were still ongoing. The 20-year-old, whose initial asylum request was rejected in April 2017, had been waiting on a decision on his appeal before an administrative court in the German town of Greifswald.According to Spiegel, Nasibullah S. has been kept in a safe place near Kabul for the past few days by the German Foreign Office.
Bayern Munich CEO KarlHeinz Rummenigge slams DFB president for populism, his use of Twitter Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has renewed his criticism of the DFB. However, the Bayern chairman stopped short of calling on its president, Reinhard Grindel, to resign. He also had words of criticism for Mesut Özil. Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge used an interview published in the SportBild weekly on Wednesday to accuse Reinhard Grindel, president of the German football association (DFB) of populism. "Fundamentally I have a good relationship with Mr. Grindel. But he has a tendency towards populism in an effort to win public applause," he said. "This may have to do with the fact that he doesnʼt have a background in football but comes from the world of politics."
Help the planet with a straw-free August in Budapest It’s the last straw for bars and cafés in Budapest. A planet-friendly campaign is launching this weekend, requesting guests to skip the plastic straws when ordering drinks.
Apple is the worldʼs first trillion-dollar company Long known as one of the most valuable firms in the world, the US tech giant hit a milestone market capitalization of a trillion dollars as its stock price keeps inching higher. Itʼs a watershed moment for the company. In early morning trading on Thursday, Appleʼs stock jumped 2.8 percent and sent the company over a magic hurdle as it became the worldʼs first privatesector publicly traded company with a market value of $1 trillion (€860 billion). For those who like visuals, in numerals that is 1,000,000,000,000. PetroChina, a state-owned oil giant, was the first company to hit this mark during its initial public offering in 2007, though its value has declined dramatically since then. Apple on the other hand is the first non-state-
owned company to reach this stratospheric valuation on its own merits through a long, sustained upward climb without implicit government guarantees or backing. It is a market development that has been in the pipeline for well over a year. Recent higher sales of the expensive iPhone X gave investors more confidence in the company and helped it to this watershed moment, leaving second-place Amazon and third-place Google well behind in the mid to high $800 billion value range.
Plastic bottle recycling champion: Norway or Germany? Norwayʼs bottle deposit scheme has been getting a lot of celebratory press. But some of the figures being quoted may be misleading. At the end of last year, a study by British environmental consultancy Eunomia named Germany the worldʼs best recycler, with the country recycling 56 percent of its household waste. But since then, various media reports have given the impression Norway was way ahead. International media have carried the news that Norway recycles 95 percent of its polyethylene terephthalate — or PET — bottles, and social media has run with it, with avideo posted by the
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World Economic Forumcelebrating this impressive figure achieved through a tax and deposit system. "Norway is very proud of its bottle deposit system," said Peter Sundt, general secretary of the European Association of Plastics Recycling and Recovery Organizations, and a Norwegian himself. The system is simple: Manufacturers of beverage bottles are subject to a high tax on their product. But they get a rebate depending on how many of the empty containers they collect from across the country. Sundt says this makes a lot of sense in Norway, where taxes are seen as a simple and effective tool.
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Turkish lira hits record low as US sanctions bite The Turkish lira fell to a rate of 5.1 against the dollar in early Friday trading, breaking the symbolic resistance threshold of 5 for the first time. The currency has lost 4 percent against the dollar over the last week and is down about 36 percent this year, according to FactSet. The lira plummeted in late July after the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) left interest rates unchanged as inflation continued to rise, with one analyst likening buying the currency to "catching a falling knife." The sense of doom was compounded on August 1 when the US imposed selective sanctions on Turkey over the detainment of an American pastor. "Crucially, the geopolitical risks are now much higher following the decision by the US to impose sanctions on two Turkish ministers. Frankly, we do not know what level of real policy rate would compensate for this increase in risk premium," Inan Demir, an analyst at Nomura, told DW.
Balkan bottleneck: Germany overwhelmed by ʼenormous increaseʼ in work visas The ability of people from the Western Balkans to gain entrance to Germany and work is currently under threat by the length of time taken to process visa applications. Citizens of Albania, BosniaHerzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia — all Balkan statesin the midst of joining the European Union— have been able to enter Germany on working visas since November 2015. The agreement is part of the bureaucratic migration channel known as the Western Balkan settlement. The only prerequisite is that applicants must already have a binding job offer. In the first nine months of 2017, German embassies in the Balkans issued 19,294 visas. Most of these were in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, with 4,702 and 4,758 respectively, followed by Macedonia (3,675) and Serbia (3,613). In the same period, the embassy in the Albanian capital of Tirana issued 2,796 working permits.