DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH
AfD worker accused of ordering arson attack in Ukraine A parliamentary worker for the farright Alternative for Germany (AfD) has been accused of ordering a false flag arson attack in an attempt to discredit Ukraineʼs government. Three men are on trial in Poland following last Februaryʼs firebombing of a Hungarian culture center in Uzhorod, western Ukraine. According to Polish authorities, the attack was to be attributed to Ukrainian neo-Nazis in order to sour relations between Ukraine and Hungary. One of the accused, named only as Michal P., told the court that the attack, in which Molotov cocktails were used, was ordered by Manuel Ochsenreiter, who works in the office of AfD Bundestag member Markus Frohnmaier. Michal, who is also charged with funding a terrorist organization, told the Krakow court that Ochsenreiter gave him €1,500, plus money for a plane ticket, to find people to carry out the attack.
Police warn of safety risks as more Germans get gun licenses More Germans are applying forbasic weapons licensesaccording to the countryʼs Interior Ministry. As of December 31, 2018, some 610,937 citizens had been issued licenses. The jump of 53,377gunpermits over 2017 represents a 9.6 percent increase in the number of Germans now licensed to carry gas pistols, flare guns,pepper sprayand other weapons not intended for deadly use. Police representatives suggest the increase illustrates a latentsense of insecurityamong citizens. However, Left Party domestic policy expert Ulla Jelpke said the increase was "a result of the panic created by law and order politicians like Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and right-wing agitators like the AfD [Alternative for Germany]."
14/2019 • 17 JANUARY, 2019
Brexit likely to be Britainʼs greatest disaster Theresa May has earned her defeat in parliament and only has herself to blame
Brexit has developed enormous destructive power. No matter how this British drama ends, the damage will remain, says DWʼs Barbara Wesel. Theresa May has suffered a crushing defeat in thevote on the UKʼs withdrawal agreementwith the EU. The British Prime Minister should actually step down after this historic defeat, but May nipped the question of resignation in the bud. She said she had taken on the role of Prime Minister in order to implement Brexit and would fulfill this task. And thatʼs that. She will also survive the oppositionʼs no confidence vote. This is because the conservatives will close ranks again as soon as itʼs a matter of holding on to power. But for British politics, Mayʼs persistence, which has long bordered on stubbornness, is a disaster. May deserves this defeat in Parliament because she herself is to blame. The fact that Brexit has resulted in her government, Parliament and British politics in general being so divided and deadlocked is also due to Mayʼs particular political inability. From the outset, as head of government, she only had her Conservatives in view. She spoke only to her own hardliners, trying to keep the party together at all costs. In doing so, she
failed to build alliances, reach out to the opposition and sound out compromises. Her hostile rhetoric against EU workers, for example, and against Europe itself, has only deepened the rifts between the camps. And she has not made any friends among her European colleagues, whose support she will be depending on when the UK leaves, as well as afterwards. Theresa May lacks the stature of a head of state. She is not showing any responsibility for the future, or for Britainʼs welfare. As a politician, she is too small-minded and too narrow, too rigid and unimaginative for the difficult times that Brexit has brought about. The British would have needed a different head of state, but opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn is not even considered suitable by those in his own ranks. And so far, there has been no one else in sight to take on the role. It seems that common sense, compromise and any historical insight into the international role and possibilities of the country have disappeared from British politics overnight.
ʼEl Chapoʼ paid Mexicoʼs expresident $100 million bribe, says witness A key witness inthe trial of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman on Tuesday said the Mexican drug lord had paid a bribe amounting to $100 million toformer President Enrique Pena Nieto. Colombian trafficker Alex Cifuentes, who described himself as Guzmanʼs former right-hand man, said the oncehead of the Sinaloa cartel had bribed Pena Nieto in 2012, when he was president-elect, in exchange for the government ending its manhunt to find him. Cifuentes admitted that he first discussed the bribe with prosecutors in 2016, when he began cooperating with US authorities. Pena Nieto had first asked for $250 million, but later settled for $100 million, Cifuentes said he told prosecutors. After the bribe was paid, Pena Nieto sent a message to Guzman that he longer had to live in hiding, Cifuentes testified.
Kenya declares all ʼterroristsʼ killed in hotel attack Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Wednesday that securities forces had killed all the "terrorists" involved inan attack on a hotel complexthat left 14 people dead. Kenya has frequently been targeted by the Somali militant group alShabab, which claimed responsibility for the attack in Nairobi on Tuesday.
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