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DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH

Court rules on letting disabled Germans vote in EU polls The Federal Constitutional Court will Monday hear an urgent motion filed

by Germanyʼs opposition parties to let disabled people under full-time care cast ballots in the European elections on May 26. More than 80,000 individuals with disabilities arebarred from voting under current legislation, which the top court has already found to be unconstitutional. But planned government reforms to correct the situation will only be enacted after the EU vote. Verena Bentele, the president of the social welfare association VdK Germany, told public broadcaster Bayern 2 she hoped the courtʼs decision would be swift: "What irks me so much about this issue is that we have been calling for this for years."

She added that the government had for a long time "done nothing," and only acted after adecision by the Constitutional Courtearlier this year.

Top German court to decide legality of assisted suicide Germanyʼs Federal Constitutional Court will hear oral arguments this week about whether medical associations and physicians should be allowed to aid terminally ill patients in their own deaths.

Physician-assisted suicide has been hotly contested in Germany since 2015,when the parliament outlawed the prescribing of lifeending drugs. Afederal court case in 2017 deemed assisted suicide legal in extreme cases, but authorities have largely ignored the ruling — pitting political parties and various branches of the government against one another. Authorities distinguish among various forms of assisted suicide and how the government punishes violations.

88/2019 • 16 APRIL, 2019

Parisʼ Notre Dame cathedral in flames A large blaze has caused extensive damage to the 12th Century cathedral

A large blaze has caused extensive damage to the 12th Century cathedral, one of the most visited landmarks in Paris. French President Emmanuel Macron said he was sad "to see this part of us burning."

Ex-VW boss Martin Winterkorn charged in Dieselgate scandal German prosecutors have charged former Volkswagen boss Martin Winterkorn in the diesel emissions scandal. The charges include one of major fraud. The news coincides with VW showcasing its wares at the Shanghai auto show.

Public prosecutors in the German city of Braunschweig have brought charges against former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn over his role in the Dieselgate scandal, they said on Monday. Four other managers were also charged, they said. Winterkornstepped down as Volkswagen CEO in 2015after revelations that the carmaker had programmed computers in its vehicles to detect when they were being

tested and had altered the running of diesel engines to conceal the true level of emissions. What are the charges, are others at risk? The five are accused of multiple crimes realized in a single criminal action, especially a particularly serious case of fraud and an infraction of the law against unfair competition.Winterkorn was given special mention for allegedly acting as a "guarantor" to authorities that VW was not selling manipulated vehicles even after he knew about the illegal manipulations.Current CEO Herbert Diess said in Shanghai that he didnʼt expect to face charges.VW shares, seemingly unaffected by the news, rose slightly in trading on Monday.

Nets ʼnʼ Lasers: some of our best hopes for mitigating the threat of space debris Space debris is a bit like space itself: We know itʼs up there, but beyond that thereʼs so much we know we donʼt know. The statistics are fun, though, if a little misleading. Itʼs a bit of a safari crunching the numbers, but here goes. Since 1957, the year the Soviet Union sent Sputnik into space, there have been 4,900 space launches. So far so good. In that time we have put 6,600 satellites in orbit

and/or created "an on-orbit population of more than 18,000 tracked objects." Elsewhere, ESA cites "more than 17,000 orbital objects" being tracked and catalogued by the US Space Surveillance Network. And in a third document itʼs 22,000 objects.

But you get the idea: Itʼs a lot. Of the 6,600 satellites, 3,600 remain in space, and less than a third (about 1,100) are operational.

More non-EU nationals moving to Germany for work The number of non-EU citizens moving to Germany for work has risen by about 20 percent for a third year in a row. Figures show most of these foreigners are men from India, China and the United States. The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on Mondayreported a 20 percent jumpover the past year in people from countries outside the EU coming to work in Germany.

The group makes up a relatively small portion of the countryʼs 10.9 million foreigners. The number of non-EU citizens with a work permit in Germany rose from 217,000 in 2017 to 266,000 in 2018.It is the third year in a row the number has risen by 20 percent.Most of the foreigners came from India (12%), China (9%), Bosnia and Herzegovina (8%), and the United States (7%).On average the newcomers were 35 years old, and more than two thirds of them were male.More than 80 percent had a temporary work permit, while 17 percent had a permanent permit allowing them to stay indefinitely.

EU backs start of trade talks with US European Union member nations have paved the way for the beginning of formal trade negotiations with the United States. The move comes amid a threat

by Donald Trump to impose tariffs on the EU over Airbus subsidies. The European Union can now begin trade negotiations with the United States after its member states on Monday voted by a clear majority to approve the negotiating mandates put forward by the European Commission. The EU currently has a tense trade relationship with Washington, with Donald Trump threatening to levy tariffs oncar importsandother European products.

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8 / 17 °C Precipitation: 0 mm

88/2019 • 16 April, 2019

Worried about Brexit, Brits stockpile food, supplies Nick Thomas, a 25-year-old hazardous waste operator from Cornwall, is insistent that Brexit will be fine.

Probably. "If ʼno dealʼ goes badly, thereʼll be rioting on the streets and looting, national uproar. If people canʼt eat, theyʼll rise up and fight. But I canʼt see it happening — thatʼs a very worst case scenario," he said.

Thomas, who voted to leave the EU because of the adverse effects of the common fisheries policy on his local area, is not ruling out the possibility of things going awry. He has stocked up with a substantial amount of dried goods – rice and pasta, primarily — as well as tinned beans and vegetables. "The main thing is the food supply chain," he said. "A couple of friends of mine have done the same as me and bought some big bags of rice and pasta, some long-life tins of food.

But weʼre all of the same opinion that thereʼs nothing really to worry about."

Tiger Woods wins 2019 Masters golf championship Tiger Woods sealed one of the most remarkable comebacks in sport, let alone golf, to win his fifth Masters and seal an epic return from scandal and injuries that once threatened his career. Itʼs Woodsʼ 15th major, and the 14 years between his fourth and fifth Masters triumph is the longest gap between majors. A remarkable 22 years after Woods won his first major at Augusta National, Woods sunk a short bogey putt to seal the win as the crowd erupted in chants of "Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!"

Amazonʼs Alexa lies to — and spies on — consumers Itʼs no surprise that Amazon is using Alexa to listen to peopleʼs conversations. Thatʼs just one more signal that we are moving into an era in which our privacy is no longer protected.

If you ask Amazonʼs voice-activated virtual assistant, Alexa, whether it is spying on you, the device will reply that it is not and add that your data privacy is very important to it. But then, last week, we learned the truth: Amazon has its employees listen to and transcribe thousands of Alexa conversations each day — without users knowing. According to Amazon, this helps improve the customer experience. Evidently, Amazon thinks customersʼ experience is more important than their privacy because it not

only recorded "official" Alexa requests but, according to Bloomberg, also people singing in the shower, kids calling for help and even what sounded like a sexual assault. Amazon officials have shown no remorse about violating Germanyʼs telecommunication confidentiality law, which is codified in the constitution. And neither does it seem bothered about massively violating the right of informational self-determination, which has been upheld by Germanyʼs top court. This is one side of the scandal.

Dogs sniff out cancer — with an amazing hit rate That dogs can smell cancer isnʼt new, per se. What is new, however, is the accuracy of the animal cancer detector.

Compared with dogs, the human sense of smell is pathetic: The animals smell 10,000 to 100,000 times better than we do. They can sniff out not only drugs and explosives, but also cancer. However, in previous studies, the accuracy of the animals left something to be desired. Thereʼs a new US study out that claims an amazingly high hit rate.

Three beagles are said to have identified 96.7 percent of lung cancer in blood samples. The dogs detected the healthy control in 97.5 percent of the cases. Only a fourth dog in the group, Snuggles, had no desire at all for the job. Heather Junqueira, lead scientist of the research and product development companyBioScentDx, carried out the study and is enthusiastic about the Beaglesʼ performance: "Our work paves the way for two possible research directions that can lead to new methods of cancer detection.

Elegant Café Párisi breathes new life into Budapest’s splendid Lotz Hall Café Párisi is on the top floor of the building, with theAndrássy Entertainment Centreand, from tomorrow, an Avatar exhibition below.

The café is open every day and the Lotz Hall can be rented for special events such as birthday parties, company gatherings or a fairy-tale wedding. Café Párisi Address: District VI. Andrássy út 39 Open: Daily 9am-9pm

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Merger between T-Mobile and Sprint on the line The $26.5 billion (€23 billion) merger,announced last April, would combine the United Statesʼ third and fourth largest wireless companies, creating a new firm the size of sector rivals Verizon andAT&T. It would also reduce the number of major carriers in the US from four to three. T-Mobileʼs German parent,Deutsche Telekom would take 42 percent of the new entity and Japanʼs SoftBank, owner of Sprint, 27 percent, with the rest held by the public. The combined company, to be called T-Mobile, would have 127 million customers.

But the deal must get the green light from US federal regulators. A hearing before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on Wednesday — Thursdayʼs scheduled meeting before the House Committee on the Judiciary was postponed — didnʼt have a direct bearing on the governmentʼs regulatory review. But optics matter and they can help or hinder in the final decision-making process.

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.

"What Ferdinand Piëch managed to implement at VW from 1993 with the help of his platform strategyis in a way being copied now by Geelyʼs main shareholder and founder, Li Shufu," said Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, adding that the Chinese were becoming major players in the global auto market.