DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH
Cum-ex tax scandal cost European treasuries €55 billion The scale of the financial damage caused by the so-called "cum-ex" tax scandal is much higher than previously thought, according to information provided to Reuters, ARD, Die Zeit and several other news organizations. For the last few years,German authorities have been investigating hundreds of the tax fraud cases, where banks and stockbrokers rapidly traded shares with ("cum") and without ("ex") dividend rights, with the aim of being able to conceal the identity of the actual owner and allow both parties to claim tax rebates on capital gains tax that had only been paid once. Now, reports published on Thursday morning say that at least 10 other European countries beyond Germany have been affected by the tax fraud practices, and that the damage caused to state treasuries could be as high as €55.2 billion ($63.4 billion).
German drug czar slams tobacco advertising, demands billboard ban Germanyʼs drug commissioner says that nicotine represents the countryʼs biggest substance risk. She wants to ban outdoor advertising for cigarettes and tobacco, but some within her own party donʼt want to kick the habit. When German governmentpoint woman Marlene Mortlerpresented the official 2018 report on drugs and addiction in Germany, she did not stress opioids, cocaine, LSD or even cannabis. Instead, she stressed that nicotine remains the addictive drug that has cost the most lives in the country in recent years. The numbers of people in Germany who smoke have declined by 30 percent since 2013,as they have elsewhere in Europe.
240/2018 • 19 OCTOBER, 2018
What happened to Brexit architect David Cameron? How the former British prime minister spends his days?
As Brexit unravels before our eyes, itʼs worth reminding ourselves who got the UK and the EU into this mess in the first place.
Canadaʼs cannabis legalization goes into effect Canadians can now purchase and grow their own marijuana after a two-year effort by the government. While enthusiasts have hailed the move, some health officials have warned of the perils of an "uncontrolled experiment." Canada on Wednesday became the first industrialized Western nation tolegalize cannabis as Prime Minister Justin Trudeauʼs government completed a 2015 campaign pledge. Beforehand, only medical marijuana had been legal in the North American country. A regulated industry: While Canadians must be 18 years old to purchase cannabis, several
provinces have bumped up the age requirement. Quebec is pushing the legal age to 21 years.Canadians can possess up to 30 grams (1.05 ounces) and grow up to four plants at home.Some provinces have imposed a profit cap, such as Newfoundland, which has limited total profits on cannabis to 8 percent.Smoking cannabis is prohibited everywhere where tobacco smoking is banned.Cannabis concentrates, liquids for vaporizers and edibles are still banned under current legislation. Health authorities say they do not have sufficient evidence about their impact on public health.
Asterix translator Anthea Bell dies at 82 Bell is perhaps best known for her adaptations of the French Asterixcomics, in collaboration with her late co-translator Derek Hockridge. Her work was acclaimed as it managed to transmit the spirit of the series renowned for its numerous puns. For example, the druid in the French version of the series is called Panoramix; the name of the provider of the Gaulsʼ magic potion was cleverly turned into Getafix. The English version of the series is marked by her creative
signature to a point that the 37th album, Asterix and the Chariot Race (2017) — to which she could no longer contribute due to illness — paid tribute to "her wonderful translation work on Asterix over the years." Still Bell always insisted that she was "an unrepentant, unreconstructed adherent of the school of invisible translation," aiming to give readers the impression they were reading "the real thing," as she wrote in an essay in The Translator as Writer (2006).
EU and Asia leaders reaffirm multilateralism at ASEM Summit in Brussels The twelfth biennial ASEM meeting got underway in Brussels on Thursday with the participation of 51 leaders. The two-day conference has the EU, Switzerland and Norway hosting Asian officials — including Prime Ministers Li Keqiang of China, Shinzo Abe of Japan and Dmitry Medvedev of Russia. Two days of talks on trade, cybersecurity, the fate of the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate agreement are on the agenda. The EU sees the meeting as an opportunity to present itself as a counterbalance to both the US and China by offering Asian countries alternatives when it comes to trade, infrastructure and digitalization. An EU Belt and Road plan?
Court in Finland finds pro-Kremlin trolls guilty of harassing journalist A Finnish man was sentenced to over a year in prison on Thursday for defaming and harassinginvestigative journalist Jessikka Aro, who works for Finnish public broadcaster YLE. Ilja Janitskin, the founder of the rightwing, pro-Kremlin website MV-Lehti, was handed a 22-month prison sentence after being found guilty of 16 charges, including defamation. Johan Backman, a longtime mouthpiece for Moscow in Finland, was also found guilty of defamation and harassing and received a one-year suspended sentence.
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