DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH
NATO launches biggest war games since end of Cold War NATO launched its biggest exercises since the end of the Cold War on Thursday in Norway. The Trident Juncture war gamesinvolve around 50,000 troops, 10,000 vehicles, 250 aircraft and 65 ships from all 29 alliance members, plus Sweden and Finland. The maneuvers will take place for two weeks in Norway and the air and sea spaces around the country. The goal of the exercises is to test and train NATOʼs Very High Readiness Joint Task Force and follow-on forces. The rapid reaction force is designed to spearhead a defense against an attack on an alliance member within days and is a component of the NATO Response Force. The Very High Readiness Joint Task Force was established by the alliance in 2014 as a deterrent in response to Russiaʼs annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine and Moscowʼs support for separatists there.
Police investigate packages sent to Robert de Niro and former VP Joe Biden Actor Robert De Niro and former US Vice President Joe Biden were sent suspicious packages on Thursday that were similar to others that contained pipe bombs, according to US media reports. US investigators are said to be focussing on leads from the southern state of Florida. The news followed a series of suspected pipe bombssent to high-profile Democrats andcritics of US President Donald Trump. New York Cityʼs police department responded to reports of a "suspicious package" found in Manhattan that was located in an area where Robert De Niro owns a restaurant.Police later said theyʼd removed the package, but advised locals to expect a large police presence
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Rome in the crosshairs as Draghi sharpens ECBʼs monetary scissors EU rejects Italyʼs 2019 budget
We don’t know if the rumors that Italyʼs PM checks ItalianGerman bond yield spreads several times a day are true. But as the ECB ends stimulus and Rome refuses to budge on its budget, he might want to start.
Appleʼs Tim Cook hails EUʼs GDPR, calls for similar US data protection law Tim Cook has warned that internet usersʼ personal data is being "weaponized" by internet giants. His solution is a US data protection law that imitates many of the EUʼs stringent rules. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook on Wednesday called on the United States to follow the European Unionʼs example by passing a federal data protection law akin tothe blocʼs General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). "We should celebrate the transformative work of the European institutions," Cook told a conference on data protection in Brussels. "It is
time for the rest of the world, including my home country, to follow your lead," he said. The GDPR entered into force in May. It introduced stringent rules on how businesses around the world collect and use the personal data of people located within the European Union. Companies that break the law risk harsh financial penalties. Cook voiced support for a similar US law to tackle the internet giantsʼ "surveillance" of internet users via the control of massive amounts of personal data. That information, he said, was "being weaponized" against internet users with "military efficiency."
Can religious leaders help keep Kabulʼs water flowing? Foreign invasions, civil war, terror attacks, competing warlords —fate has not been kind to Afghanistanin the past decades. Now, as many people leave their homes in the countryside for Kabul in search of a better and indeed safer life, the countryʼs capital is facing a threat of an entirely different kind: a severe water shortage. The situation is so dire that Afghanistanʼs National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA) has warned that increasing demand and use of water in
the city could see underground water reserves dry up within the next decade. Kabulʼs groundwater levels have already dropped 20 meters (66 feet) in the past five years, according to the Afghanistanʼs urban water authorities. And with a trend toward less rain and snowfall, there is every chance that levels will continue to drop. That is desperate news for the almost 5 million-strong capital, which is considered one of the worldʼs fasting-growing cities.
Russian general says US plane directed drones towards airbase in Syria The US military helped coordinate an attempted drone attack on Russiaʼs Hemeimeem base in Syria, Russian deputy defense minister Alexander Fomin claimed at a summit in Beijing on Thursday. The alleged attack took place in January 2018. Fominʼs statement marks the first time Russia has directly accused the US of targeting Russian forces. The Russian official said that a coordinated group of 13 drones was directed toward the base while a US Poseidon-8, a hightech reconnaissance plane, was cruising over the Mediterranean. Once the drones "reached our barrier of radioelectronic interference," they were switched to manual navigation, according to Fomin. "This manual control is not conducted by just some villager, but by a normal, modernized Poseidon-8," Fomin added. "It took on manual control."
Saudi Arabia admits Jamal Khashoggi death was intentional The finding contradicts earlier assertions that Khashoggiʼs death at Riyadhʼs Turkish consulate was accidental. Saudi Arabia is attempting to distance the royal family from the journalistʼs killing. Saudi prosecutors said the alleged killers of Jamal Khashoggi acted intentionally, in comments published by Saudi news agency SPA.The finding runs completely counter to earlier assertions thatKhashoggiʼs death at Riyadhʼs Turkish consulatewas accidental. Saudi officials initially claimed that Khashoggi had left the embassy safely.
weather today BUDAPEST
8 / 13 °C Precipitation: 3 mm
244/2018 • 26 October, 2018
South Korea urges for ʼbold decisionsʼ ahead of next Trump-Kim summit South Korean President Moon Jaeincalled on both North Korea and the United States on Tuesday to make concrete steps in their stalled negotiations over Pyongyangʼs nuclear weapons program. Moon said the US and North Korea need to "make bold decisions" and that both must communicate more actively with one another. "North Korea must carry out its nuclear dismantling and the United States must take a corresponding step," Moon said, adding that he will continue to act as mediator between the two sides. Moonʼs comments come one week before he is due to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Unfor a summit in Pyongyangthat is due to run from September 18-20. It will be the third summit between the two leaders this year. Improving relations between North and South Korea is largely tied to progress in talks between Washington and Pyongyang. Moon said that his upcoming summit with Kim must include another "big step" towards denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.
Senegal to become Africaʼs first Olympic host Senegalʼs President Macky Sall was in Buenos Aires to see IOC members confirm the executive boardʼs preference for his country over the other three candidates. The youth games will be held in three places: Dakar; a new city of Diamniadio, close to the capital; and the coastal resort of Saly. Sall said the government-backed project will build a 50,000-seat Olympic Stadium for the event which will held in May or June, at the end of the dry season, to "greatly reduce the prevalence of tropical diseases," IOC vice president Ugur Erdener told the membership.
No lack of corporate data breaches this decade Hong Kong carrier Cathay Pacific is the latest company to come under pressure to communicate the scope of a data breach following an attack by hackers. Cathay Pacific faced a hard time Thursday(October 25, 2018) explaining why it had taken five months to admit it had been hacked, seeing the data of 9.4 million customers compromised. The airline had first discovered suspicious activity on its network in March. Investors noted that customers had missed out on a long period of opportunity to take steps to safeguard their personal data.Also in the news Thursday was Facebook,which was fined by a UK watchdog for processing personal information unfairly by giving app developers access to mil-
lions of accounts without the usersʼ consent. Does Cambridge Analytica ring a bell? The political consultancy used data from tens of millions of Facebook accounts to profile voters and help US President Donald Trumpʼs 2016 election campaign. But you donʼt have to look back very far to be reminded of even bigger data breaches earlier this decade. The largest one in terms of the number of users affected is associated with former internet giant Yahoo. Back in 2016, it conceded towhat it called "the biggest data breach in history."
European Parliament votes for ban on single-use plastic European lawmakers have approved measures to reduce plastics polluting seas and oceans. The European Parliament on Wednesday approved measures that could lead to a ban on single-use plastic items, including straws, cotton swabs and disposable plastic plates and cutlery, by 2021. The parliament backed the proposals with a 571-53 majority. In May, the European Commission proposed EU-wide rulesto target the top 10 single-use plastic items that litter Europeʼs beaches or are found in its seas, as well as lost and abandoned fishing gear. A ban on the use of plastic items like straws, cotton swabs, plastic plates and cutlery, plastic coffee stirrers and plastic balloon holders. EU
lawmakers on Wednesday added very lightweight plastic bags and polystyrene fast-food containers to the list.Reduce the use of plastic food containers, such as the ones used for takeaway, and cups for beverages.Producers will help cover the costs of waste management and cleanup as well as raise awareness of the polluting impacts of tobacco products with filters (such as cigarette butts), wet wipes, balloons, plastic bags and candy and potato chip wrappers.Member states should use a deposit refund scheme or any other measure to collect 90 percent of single-use plastic bottles by 2025.Menstrual pads, wet wipes and balloons will be required to add a label indicating how to dispose of the product properly.
World Press Photo exhibition open in Budapest A heartwarming hug, exploited sex workers and all of the chaos and calamity caused by an increasing terrorist attacks and conflict. The annual World Press Photo travelling exhibition once again portrays milestones from the past year through the best works of photojournalism. The exhibition is on view until October 23rd at the Hungarian National Museum. If you just visit one show in Budapest this autumn, it should be this one.
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ʼYeah, nahʼ: Kiwi startup defies German giantʼs order to stop saying ʼhelloʼ New Zealand startup My Food Bag, which delivers fresh ready-to-cook ingredients, issued a tongue-in-cheek response to a cease-and-desist notice from Berlin-based Hello Fresh. Hello Fresh had taken issue with its Kiwi competitor using the phrase "Hello Fresh." The letter, published in the New Zealand Herald and other domestic media, is replete with Kiwi colloquialisms and phrases in the countryʼs indigenous Maori language. The response, from Aotearoa, the Maori name for New Zealand, begins with a Maori greeting, to HelloFresh executives Thomas Griesel and Dr. Christian Ries. "Kia ora" is translated as "hello." "Kia ora Herr Griesel and Herr Ries, Greetings from Aotearoa. We donʼt often get heavyweight German multina‐ tional corporations taking the time to write to us Kiwis."
Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld receives top French award French President Emmanuel Macron has presented Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld with the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor. Klarsfeld, working with his wife, dedicated his life to bringing Holocaust perpetrators to justice. Klarsfeld, 83, received Franceʼs highest award, while his wife, 79year-oldBeate Klarsfeld, received the National Order of Merit. She had already been awarded the Legion of Honor in 2014. The Chief Rabbi of France Haim Korsia was among those who attended the ceremony at the Elysee Palace. The event was limited to family and close friends and associates. Serge Klarsfeld was born September 17, 1935, in the Romanian capital of Bucharest. He escaped the Holocaust after his family moved to France but witnessed his father being taken away to die in the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz. He became a naturalized French citizen in 1950, and 10 years later, while studying at the prestigious Sciences Po in Paris, he met Beate Kuenzel, the daughter of a former German soldier, on a metro platform. Serge and Beate decided to bring fugitive Nazis to justicetogether, a mission they pursued for more than half a century.