DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH
CEO of Brazilʼs Vale removed after deadly dam disaster Vale CEO Fabio Schvartsman and three other senior executives resigned Saturday after federal prosecutors investigating a fatal mine bust requested their removal. More than 180 people died when the tailings dam at Valeʼs Corrego do Feijao iron ore mine in southeastern Brazil ruptured on January 25. The breach released a torrent of toxic sludge thatburied surrounding communitiesin the state of Minas Gerais.Some 122 people are still missing. The Brazilian mining company said in a statement that its board had "immediately accepted" the resignations, which it described as temporary. Eduardo Bartolomeo, executive director of base metals, was appointed interim CEO.
Greece: Holocaustthemed game shocks Jewish community In Greece, Schindlerʼs List isnʼt just seen as an epic, landmark film in the history of Holocaust storytelling. Itʼs an escape room based on a Holocaust-themed game that is taking Greek youth by storm, much to the chagrin of the Jewish community. The outcry has prompted the company, The Great Escape, to change the gameʼs name — a direct reference to Steven Spielbergʼs film on the Holocaust — to "Secret Agent." But the gameʼs goal roughly remains the same: to draw up a list of survivors who will be spared a grisly death by enemy forces — a blurred imitation of the lists featured in the award-winning Hollywood movie. While the game, advertised prominently on the companyʼs website, makes no explicit reference to Jews or the Holocaust, initial descriptions featured on Greek websites lured players, challenging them to assist a German businessman, Oskar Schindler, in "saving as many innocent people from the pursuit of SS forces," in Krakow, Poland.
53/2019 • 4 MARCH, 2019
Bernie Sanders launches 2020 presidential campaign Bernie Sanders has kicked off his 2020 US presidential campaign with a rally in New York City
The senator vowed to defeat Donald Trump, whom he called "the most dangerous president in modern American history."
Germany minimum wage remains one of lowest in region At €9.19, the minimum wage in Germany remains among the lowest in western Europe, according to a report. Despite an increase earlier this year, the wage floor continues to sit far below median income levels. Although minimum wages have grown across the EU, Germany ranks among the lowest for western European countries,a report on Thursday revealed. Produced by the Hans-Böckler Foundation’s Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI), the report showed that Germany came in second last place at €9.19 ($10.36) per hour — even after a 35-cent increase earlier this year. It was defeated only by the
UK, where the minimum wage of £7.83 now equates to €8.85, albeit partly as a result of the pound weakening since thereferendum vote to leave the EU. Although wages in Germany were higher than many southern and eastern European states, workers were still vulnerable to poverty. The minimum wage, which would equate to around €1,146 per month after taxes and social contributions,barely stood above the poverty line and only made up around 48 percent of the national median income. In comparison, countries like Turkey offered a minimum wage of almost 74 percent of median national income. In Portugal, the figure is 61 percent.
Erwin Blumenfeld: Fashion photographyʼs surrealist innovator An imaginative visionary who claimed to have "smuggled art" into his body of work, photographer Erwin Blumenfeld often embraced mischief when he produced his images. His friendship with Dadaists impacted how he experimented with photography and his life experiences, which took the German-Jewish photographer from his Berlin birthplace to a
failed business in Amsterdam to internment camps in France and eventually to the United States, also fed into the dark visual subtitles of his images. While in Europe, Blumenfeld shot in black and white, but itʼs his kaleidoscopic photography that forms the subject of a new exhibition at Foam in Amsterdam: "Erwin Blumenfeld in Color — His New York Years."
Estonia goes to the polls as center tries to keep populists at bay Estonians headed to the polls on Sunday as Prime Minister Juri Ratas and his Center Party face off against the moderately conservative Reform Party. Also contesting the election is the far-right nationalist Conservative Peopleʼs Party of Estonia (EKRE), which looks poised to make major gains on its 2015 results. Ratasʼ Center Party has been ruling in coalition with the Social Democrats and the center-right Pro Patria party since the previous governmentcollapsed in a no-confidence vote in November 2016. The Center Party has widespread support among Estoniaʼs ethnic Russian population, which makes up about 25 percent of the countryʼs 1.3 million inhabitants. It has remained popular even after Ratasʼ predecessor as party leader, Edgar Savisaar, repeatedly became the target of corruption allegations over his close ties to Russian officials. Some 1,099 candidates from 10 parties are vying for the 101 spots in the Riigikogu, Estoniaʼs parliament.
Protests in Algeria as president poised to run for 5th term Hundreds of police and soldiers were deployed in Algeriaʼs capital Algiers on Sunday as President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was set to officially register to run fora highly controversial fifth term in office. The country has been gripped by widespread protests all week over Bouteflikaʼs decision, with at least one protestor being killed in clashes with police.
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53/2019 • 4 March, 2019
Worried about Brexit, Brits stockpile food, supplies
Greece scrambles to clean up banks and bad loans
Merger between T-Mobile and Sprint on the line
Nick Thomas, a 25-year-old hazardous waste operator from Cornwall, is insistent that Brexit will be fine. Probably. "If ʼno dealʼ goes badly, thereʼll be rioting on the streets and looting, national uproar. If people canʼt eat, theyʼll rise up and fight. But I canʼt see it happening — thatʼs a very worst case scenario," he said. Thomas, who voted to leave the EU because of the adverse effects of the common fisheries policy on his local area, is not ruling out the possibility of things going awry. He has stocked up with a substantial amount of dried goods – rice and pasta, primarily — as well as tinned beans and vegetables. "The main thing is the food supply chain," he said. "A couple of friends of mine have done the same as me and bought some big bags of rice and pasta, some long-life tins of food. But weʼre all of the same opinion that thereʼs nothing really to worry about."
Plagued by eight exhausting years of financial crisis, millions of Greeks are unable to pay off their loans. But there are also those who donʼt want to, as Anthee Carassava reports from Athens.
The $26.5 billion (€23 billion) merger,announced last April, would combine the United Statesʼ third and fourth largest wireless companies, creating a new firm the size of sector rivals Verizon andAT&T. It would also reduce the number of major carriers in the US from four to three. T-Mobileʼs German parent,Deutsche Telekom would take 42 percent of the new entity and Japanʼs SoftBank, owner of Sprint, 27 percent, with the rest held by the public. The combined company, to be called T-Mobile, would have 127 million customers. But the deal must get the green light from US federal regulators. A hearing before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on Wednesday — Thursdayʼs scheduled meeting before the House Committee on the Judiciary was postponed — didnʼt have a direct bearing on the governmentʼs regulatory review. But optics matter and they can help or hinder in the final decision-making process.
David Beckham: New Salford City co-owner watches non-league match against Dover Athletic Fans of non-league Salford City were joined by former England captain David Beckham when he turned up to watch their home game against Dover Athletic. Saturdayʼs match was the first time he had attended one of the clubʼs games sincebecoming co-owner last month. Beckham took a 10% stake, joining former Manchester United teammates Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary and Phil Neville as co-owners.
Walk into any Greek bank and ask for a loan, and chances are youʼll walk out jilted and empty-handed. But not if you are Pavlos Polakis. The chain-smoking health minister won almost instant approval for a mammoth €100,000 ($114,000) consumer loan this month, claiming he was in desperate need of the cash to cover personal and political expenses. The revelation has sparked fierce political debateand an urgent inquiry by an Athens prosecutor after the
countryʼs central bank governor accused Polakis of calling him to complain, but also making "a preposterous" attempt to block him from investigating the controversial loan. In an urgent judicial testimony this week, the banker, Yannis Stournaras, said the minister, also a leading apparatchik in Prime Minister Alexis Tsiprasʼ leftist Syriza party, recorded the heated telephone exchange and later leaked its content to local media.
Grand Canyon celebrates centenary as a national park As a natural wonder and a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Grand Canyon in northwestern Arizona is a high priority visit for many tourists in the US. Scientists debate about whether the Grand Canyon is only 6 million years old or 70 million. What is certain is that the Colorado River took quite a long time to carve out this canyon, which is 450 kilometers long, up to 30 kilometers wide and 1,800 meters deep. Since February 26, 1919, most of the Grand Canyon has been under
special protection as a national park. Like other US national parks before it, it owes that to the efforts of early conservationists such as the writer Henry David Thoreau, the environmental philosopher John Muir and, not least, one of the most popular US presidents. Theodore Roosevelt used his office to protect numerous American landscapes by executive decree. As early as 1908, he declared the Grand Canyon a national monument: "Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it."
Sting to return to Budapest for summer 2019 Sting is head over heels for Budapest. After a successful free show with Shaggy a month ago on Heroes’ Square, the former Police frontman has just announced another Budapest concert for next summer. On 2 July, the Grammy-winning singer brings his My Songs tour to the Papp László Aréna, where he will be taking the stage with his own band. From “Englishman In New York” to “Every Breath You Take”, the set should include Sting’s biggest hits. Tickets are on sale now.
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Geely the car industryʼs rising ʼprofitability starʼ Ferdinand Dudenhöffer from the CAR Center Automotive Research at Germanyʼs Duisburg-Essen University called Chinese auto manufacturer Geely "the profitability star of the worldʼs car industry." A fresh study by the center points out that on average, a Geely car costs just €9,529 ($10,942), but the companysecures a 14.4 percent profit from revenues before tax and interest. Dudenhöffer says thatʼs a lot more than, say, the profit margins of foreign rivals BMW, Toyota or PSA-Opel. The worldʼs largest carmaker, Wolfsburg-based Volkswagen, logs a profit margin of only 8.2 percent, the survey says. Geely is part of the Zhejiang Geely Holding,which also owns Volvo Cars, London EV-Taxi and Lotus.The holding has also acquired a 10 percent stake in Daimler. According to the CAR researchers, Geelyʼs rapid rise is based on its successful compact car platform, which it developed together with Swedenbased Volvo. "What Ferdinand Piëch managed to implement at VW from 1993 with the help of his platform strategyis in a way being copied now by Geelyʼs main shareholder and founder, Li Shufu," said Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, adding that the Chinese were becoming major players in the global auto market.