DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH
New Zealand bans foreigners from buying homes New Zealandʼs parliament on Wednesday passed a law banning many non-resident foreigners from buying existing homes in the country. The bill aims to stop New Zealanders being outbid by wealthy foreign buyers. Read more: Airbnb on collision course with EU The passage of the law sees one of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardernʼs election promises come to fruition, after she vowed to clamp down on house price growth and homelessness during her election campaign. "This is a significant milestone and demonstrates this governmentʼs commitment to making the dream of home ownership a reality for more New Zealanders," Associate Finance Minister David Parker said.
Speculation mounts over Genoa bridge collapse The Morandi Bridge — known to locals as Genoaʼs "Brooklyn Bridge" — was a key artery to the Italian Riviera and to Franceʼs southern coast.A huge section of the structure collapsed on Tuesdayin the Italian city of Genoa, sending cars and trucks plunging into heaps of rubble. Scores were killed and the death toll is expected to rise. Lightning strike Regional weather services had issued a storm warning for the morning of the collapse and the national police force said on Twitter the disaster happened amid a "violent cloudburst." "The fact that there was reported to be a storm at the time may or may not be particularly relevant. In addition, ongoing work on the bridge may or may not be partly responsible for the collapse," said Ian Firth, former president of the Institution of Structural Engineers. The civil protection agency could not confirm witness accounts that the bridge cracked after being hit by lighting.
187/2018 • 16 AUGUST, 2018
Angela Merkelʼs headaches in Russia talks War and fuel:
Vladimir Putin is coming to Germany on Saturday to discuss Syria, Ukraine and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline with Angela Merkel. But what can the two long-serving leaders hope to say that they havenʼt said before?
Turkey in fresh round of retaliatory tariffs on US products Turkey has hiked tariffs on US products ranging from cars to tobacco. The move came amid an unresolved diplomatic and trade spat with the United States, which had contributed to a full-blown currency crisis. Turkeyʼs new measures, which go into effect immediately, include raising the import tariff on US-made alcoholic beverages to 140 percent and increasing the duty on passenger cars imported from the US to 120 percent.
Plastics, coal and agricultural producewere also on the list that was published in an official gazette on Wednesday. "As part of the principle of reciprocity, tax rates on some products have been raised against the US administrationʼs deliberate attacks on our economy," Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay commented. The higher duties camejust one day after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called for a boycott of all US electronic goods, insisting Turks did not need them.
Nebraska executes first US inmate using fentanyl Nebraskan authorities on Tuesday carried out the first execution of a prisoner in the state in 21 years. It also marked the first execution of a prisonerin the US using the painkiller fentanyl, a drug that has fueled an opioid crisis across the country. Forming part of a four-drug concoction, fentanyl was used as a painkiller. The other drugs included the sedative diazepam to render unconsciousness,
the muscle relaxer cisatracurium to stop the prisonerʼs breathing and potassium chloride to stop the heart. "I recognize that todayʼs execution impacts many people on many levels," said Scott Frakes, director of the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services. The lethal injection was carried out with "professionalism, respect for the process and dignity for all involved," he added.
London terror suspect identified as Briton of Sudanese origin The man whoploughed his car into London pedestriansoutside the Houses of Parliament on Tuesday has been identified as a Briton of Sudanese origin living in Birmingham, according to UK media reports. The 29-year-old was named by newspapers as Salih K.* The Press Associated news agency reported that a Facebook page for a man of that name living in Birmingham showed that he worked as a shop manager and had studied at the Sudan University of Science and Technology. Chief counter-terrorism officerNeil Basu said the suspect was not known to intelligence agencies, although The Times newspaper claimed that he was known to police.
Senatorʼs ʼWhite Australiaʼ speech sparks uproar Australiaʼs prime minister and politicians from across the political spectrum on Wednesday condemned a speech by a freshman senator calling for only white immigration and a "final solution" to end Muslim immigration. Senator Fraser Anning used his first speech in parliament on Tuesday to call for a return to a "White Australia" immigration policy that reflects the "European Christian composition of society," echoing a policy that barred people of non-European descent from immigrating. The policy was abolished in 1973. "I believe that the reasons for ending all further Muslim immigration are both compelling and self-evident," Anning, a member of the right-wing Katterʼs Australian Party (KAP), told a mostly empty hall of lawmakers.
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187/2018 • 16 August, 2018
Germany greenlights controversial migrant transfer centers Speeding up asylum proceedings and bringing them all under one roof — simply put, thatʼs the idea behindGermanyʼs migrant transfer centers, also known as "Anker" centers. The name derives from the German words for arrival, decision and repatriation. Up to 1,500 refugees and migrants can be housed in each center. Arrivals, asylum applications and the decisions on those applications — everything is to take place at the centers,including deportations. In each of the seven locations in Bavaria, which officially began operations as "Anker centers" on August 1, every agency involved in the asylum process will be present on site, the state interior minister for Bavaria, Joachim Herrmann, recently told reporters. The pilot phase for the centers will last around six months, after which initial evaluations are planned. Only after these evaluations are complete will the German federal government have to create a legal basis for the centers — and it would be dependent on the countryʼs 16 states to do so. However, approval for the plans is limited. Apart from the eastern state of Saxony, which is to set up a center of its own in Dresden, only Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia have expressed interest so far.
Serena Williams loses to Petra Kvitova at Cincinnatiʼs Western & Southern Open
Germany tries to close infrastructure backlog
The spectacular collapse of a large stretch of a motorway bridge in Genoa, Italyon Tuesday has brought Italian infrastructure into the spotlight. Though the precise cause has not been confirmed, the bridge failed amid reports of heavy storms at the same time work to shore up the bridgeʼs foundation was being carried out. Unsurprisingly the tragedy has also redirected attention more broadly toward infrastructure in general.Prosperous Germany is often criticized for a lack of investment in its infrastructure, but making connections between
the German situation and what occurred in Genoa is not necessarily advisable as there is no suggestion that German bridges are on the brink of mass collapse. Authorities nonetheless have their eyes on a few of them, most notoriously the Rhine bridge at Leverkusen, just north of Cologne. Traffic continues to flow from shore to shore, but trucks are not among those enjoying the view because they have been banned since 2012 after cracks were discovered. A replacement bridge is in the works and should be completed by 2024.
The special ʼzombie geneʼ that protects elephants from cancer The reason for this is that they have revived a special, usually sleeping, pseudogene that kills off damaged cells. Approximately 17 percent of people worldwide die of cancer. The figure for elephants is only five percent, although on average they live to about the same age as humans - just under 70 years. This is all the more surprising because the number of cells that can potentially turn into cancer is much higher in elephants than in humans
- about a hundred times as many. A team led by an expert in human genetics, Vincent Lynch, who teaches at the University of Chicago and researchers from the University of Utah suspect it might have something to do with the tumour suppression gene p53. This gene is present in humans and in almost all mammals in one copy. Its specialty is to recognise damaged DNA and drive it into programmed cell death, also called autophagy (meaning: "self digestion"). It functions like the bodyʼs garbage disposal system.
Former world number one Serena Williams says she is at the start of a "long comeback" after losing 6-3 2-6 6-3 to Czech Petra Kvitova in Cincinnati. The second-round loss comes on the back of her heaviest career defeat,a 6-1 6-0 loss to Britainʼs Johanna Kontain the Silicon Valley Classic first round. "Iʼm still at the very beginning," said the 23-time Grand Slam champion. "Iʼm just going to continue to work hard, and hopefully Iʼll start winning more matches."
The faces of Bowie at Várkert Bazaar In this documentary movie about the exhibition of the David Bowie Archive, curators Vicky Broackes and Geoffrey Marsh talk about Bowie’s exceptionally colourful body of work and major impact on the music industry.
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Trump to propose 25 percent tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods US President Donald Trump is now considering a 25 percent tariff on up to $200 billion (€171 billion) worth of Chinese imports, according to media reports in the US. Sources close to the internal US deliberations told both Bloomberg and the Washington Post that the Trump administration is consideringwhat would be a significant escalation of the current tariff regime against China, which currently stands at 25 percent on $34 billion worth of primarily industrial goods, in place since early July. In June, Trump directed the US Trade Representative to prepare fresh tariffs on an additional $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, with a rate of 10 percent touted.This wave of tariffs would include a wide range of products, from dog food to furniture, bicycles to beauty products.
Italy threatens to scupper EUCanada free trade deal The new government in Rome is walking in the footsteps of Donald Trumpʼs trade protectionism, as it has threatened to torpedo the CETA trade agreement because it doesnʼt protect Italyʼs farmers and their products. Italyʼs new agriculture minister Gian Marco Centinaio said on Thursday that the government wouldnʼt ratify theComprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada— the EUʼs first major free trade deal since 2011. In an interview with Italyʼs daily La Stampa, Centinaio said CETA didnʼt ensure sufficient protection for the countryʼs speciality foods. "We will not ratify the free trade treaty with Canada because it protects only a small part of our PDO [Protected Designation of Origin] and PGI [Protected Geographical Indication] products," Centinaio told the newspaper. "Doubts over this agreement are shared by many of my European colleagues," he added. The treaty did enter in force on a provisional basis in September 2017, doing away with tariffs on a large number of goods and widening access to Canadian beef in Europe and EU cheese and wine in Canada.