DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH
At Irish border, Brexit evokes history of violence The light is declining on an October evening in Clogher, County Tyrone, six miles (10 kilometers) from the Irish-Northern Irish border on the northern side. From the dimly lit hallway of his elegant farmhouse, Jack Johnston points towards a hill across the valley. "There was a British Army camp up there. See, the big shed in the trees," he says, pointing to an innocuous-looking farm building. "There was one occasion when gunfire from the camp hit this house. The IRA [the Provisional Irish Republican Army, an outlawed paramilitary group] ambushed the camp from the corner of that field down there and set up rocket launchers at the wee corner of that lane. Then of course the soldiers and the regiment in the camp started firing back at them and a few stray bullets came all the way up and banged off our walls." Johnston, 73, has lived on this farm all his life. Hismemories of the "troubles,"the 1969-1998 conflict in the region which claimed more than 3,500 lives, are clear.
German GDP drops for first time since 2015 Germanyʼs gross domestic product (GDP) shrank 0.2 percent in the third quarter of 2018. It is the first time the German economy has seen a contraction in more than three years. The Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden announced the contraction on Wednesday. The drop was slightly bigger than the expectation of economists polled by Reuters, who had predicted a 0.1 percent drop. In the second quarter the GDP of Europeʼs biggest economy had grown 0.5 percent. "This is the first drop compared to the previous quarter to occur since the first trimester of 2015," said the Federal Statistics office. Just last week, Germanyʼs Council of Economic Experts lowered the growth forecast for 2018to 1.6 percent instead of the 2.3 percent predicted last March.
260/2018 • 15 NOVEMBER, 2018
EU warns Romania over ʼreversedʼ progress in democratic reforms Romania has come under increased scrutiny as it will take over the EUʼs presidency in January
The EU criticized Romaniaʼs judicial reforms, saying that Bucharest isnʼt following through on its rule of law commitments.
International Energy Agency sees crunch on oil consumption An oil crunch is looming on the horizon in the absence of government intervention and unprecedented output increases, the IEA said. One scenario anticipates peak oil in 2040. Global demand for oil will continue to increase until 2040, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Tuesday, but peak oil could be reached around 2020 if there were serious government interventions to address climate change. Without major government policy interventions and investment in oil supplies, there is likely to be a supply crunch in coming years. Oil demand is expected to increase to 106 million barrels per day (mbd) by 2040, 11 mbd more
than today, according to the IEAʼs flagship publicationWorld Energy Outlook 2018. Demand will be driven by developing economies led by China and India, although this may be offset by more advanced economies reducing consumption up to 2040 due to the increasing use of renewables and implementation of other efficiencies, as well as more electric cars on the road. Still, oil consumption will continue to grow in coming decades, due to rising petrochemicals, trucking and aviation demand. The forecasts were part of a New Policies Scenario, which takes into account faster economic growth and changes to fuel efficiency policies in the United States.
We need ʼa new coalition of decencyʼ against populism Former Governor General of Canada Adrienne Clarkson and author John Ralston Saul are the co-founders of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship. The foundation hosts a series of talks called "6 Degrees Citizen Space," which focus on citizenship and cultural diversity. They are now holding a "6 Degrees" event in Berlin, taking place on November 12, and hope to establish a regular European series. DW met them while they were in the German capital to plan the project. John Ralston Saul: We started the Institute for Canadian Citizenship a
dozen years ago on the basis that there were thousands of volunteer organizations working with refugees and immigrants, but nobody was working with new citizens. There was a sort of assumption that on the day of your citizenship ceremony, you were transformed and could just move on and become involved. Some people can, but many people donʼt know how to do it. So the idea was to create an institution that would create grassroots programs across the country and that would help people become involved.
Gaza ceasefire holds after IsraelHamas violence A fragile ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian factions held early Wednesday following aflare-up in violence that threatened to unleash war in Gaza. Gazaʼs rulers Hamas said they would abide by an Egyptian and UN-brokered ceasefire agreement so long as Israel did the same. "The Palestinian resistance has defended the Palestinian people against the Israeli aggression. Once again, the Palestinians have embraced the option of resistance with patience and pride," Hamas chief Ismail Hanyia said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended his decision to agree to a ceasefire after coming under pressure from right-wing members of his coalition.
Beijing advances ʼcode of conductʼ for South China Sea Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang on Wednesday said Beijing and countries with stakes in the South China Sea are closer than ever before to a "code of conduct" for the strategic thoroughfare. Ahead of a meeting between China andthe 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN), Li said the recent adoption of a draft text for the pact was a major breakthrough. "The single draft negotiating text is not merely a technical term, but an indication that China and ASEAN have reached consensus on ensuring peace and stability, freedom of overflight and navigation in the South China Sea," Li said. "We have found the way to properly manage and defuse differences."
weather today BUDAPEST
8 / 14 °C Precipitation: 0 mm