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DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH

Thai soccer team rescued from cave speaks to media for first time The 12 young members of a Thai football team who were rescued after spending more than two weeksin a flooded Thailand cave complex spoke to the press about their ordeal for the first time on Wednesday. Speaking at a conference broadcast on the governmentʼs "Thailand Moves Forward" television program, the boys answered carefully vetted questions submitted by journalists in advance. Read more: Thai cave rescue: Hollywood hype wonʼt help the boys The team, smiling and wearing matching jerseys, described what happened and how they felt when rescue divers first found them.

German Cabinet approves 4-billion-euro plan to combat long-term unemployment Long-termunemployed people in Germanycould soon benefit from government-subsidized jobs for up to five years, after the German Cabinet on Wednesday approved a corresponding draft bill presented by Labor Minister Hubertus Heil. Four billion euros ($4.65 billion) are to be set aside over the next few years for the project, entitled "social labor market." It was initiated by the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), the junior coalition partner to Chancellor Angela Merkelʼs conservatives. The Labor Ministry calculates that each subsidized job will cost €24,000 ($27,895) annually. Employers are to receive subsidies at the level of Germanyʼs minimum wage (€1,498 per month) for two years, which are then to be reduced by 10 percent annually for the next three years.

164/2018 • 20 JULY, 2018

Hungary joins US in refusing UNʼs safe global migration compact Prime Minister Viktor Orban has taken a tough stance on migration

US evangelical Pastor Andrew Brunson denied release from Turkish prison A Turkish court on Wednesday again denied a request to release US Pastor Andrew Brunson from prison where he is being held on charges of terrorism and espionage. He is to be kept in jail pending trial. The case of the American evangelical Christian pastor from North Carolina has added further strain to US-Turkish relations, with some members of US Congress calling for sanctions against Turkey Critics of Turkey have described Brunson as a "hostage."

German Cabinet declares Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria ʼsafeʼ Hungary will not sign the UNʼs first compact on global migration, after all UN member nations except the US approved the draft to be signed in December. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto on Wednesday described the newly agreed UN global migration compact a "threat to the world" which went against his countryʼs interests. The draft for the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, took 18 months to draw up and was approved last Friday by 191 UN member nations except the United States, which pulled out last year saying it was "inconsistent with US immigration and refugee policies." The compact aims to create a global framework for managing migration: a "non-legally binding, cooperative framework" to encourage "international cooperation among all relevant actors on migration, acknowledging that no state can address migration alone, and upholds the sovereignty of states and their obligations under international law." "This document is entirely against Hungaryʼs security interests," Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said after a cabinet meeting in Budapest. This pact poses a threat to the world from the aspect that it could inspire

millions [of migrants]," he added. Szijjarto described the compact as a measure which was "extreme, biased and facilitates migration." "Its main premise is that migration is a good and inevitable phenomenon," the minister said. "We consider migration a bad process, which has extremely serious security implications." Hungary will no longer attend the signing of the final UN document which is due to take place at a ceremony in Morocco in December. Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has taken a tough position on migration, whichhas caused tension with the European Union but resonated with Hungarian voters as he argues that irregular immigration threatens European stability. Read more: How costly would inner-European border controls be? Orban disagrees with the quota-based distribution of refugees within the EU. In 2015 he ordered fences to be built along Hungaryʼs borders with Serbia and Croatia to keep out migrants traveling along the Balkan route into northern Europe.

The German government will put forward legislation declaring Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Georgia "safe countries of origin." The decision was reached after the weekly meeting of Chancellor Angela Merkelʼs cabinet on Wednesday in Berlin. If enacted, the change in the law would make it easier for Germany to turn back people from and deport them back to the countries in question, which have been frequently accused of humanrights violations. "This means that people from these safe countries cannot call upon a right to asylum (in Germany)," German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer told reporters, adding that the proposed legislation was "an important contribution" to Germanyʼs attempts to balance humanitarian concerns with a desire for "order."

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