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DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH

Turkish economic shadow looms over Europe and beyond All year long, Turkish economic delight has been in short supply. Fears of a possible currency collapse moved from a steady flow to just shy of a dam burst in recent days as the Turkish lira plunged in value against the US dollar. Although Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been defiant about his governmentʼs response to the brewing crisis, financial markets are far from reassured. With inflation soaring alongside borrowing costs in the country, the number of major loan defaults across the heavily indebted Turkish economy is rising fast. With that comes the varied and familiar lexicon of financial crises, well-known to those with clear memories of the global financial crisis of a decade ago — contagion, "too big to fail", "systemically important", and so on.

Turkey attempts to curb currency crisis Turkeyʼs central bank on Monday announced a series of measures to address bank liquidity, marking the first major action to stem a meltdown in the lira that has threatened to morph into a full-blown financial crisis. The central banksaid in a statementthat it would "take all necessary measures to maintain financial stability" and "provide all the liquidity the banks need." The central bank specified several measures to manage lira liquidity and provide sufficient foreign currency to banks.

The announcement appeared to help reverse what looked to be a currency freefall, as the Turkish lira plummeted in early trading in Asia on Monday to 7.22 against the dollar. It later pared back losses to settle around 6.85 to the dollar as of 9:30 UTC, compared to a close on Friday of 6.6. That represented a 4 percent drop.

185/2018 • 14 AUGUST, 2018

Taliban advance causes disappointment in Afghan government Afghans criticize President Ashraf Ghaniʼs administration

As battle between government troops and Taliban militants rages in the eastern city of Ghazni, Afghans criticize President Ashraf Ghaniʼs administration for having failed to protect the city and its residents.

Russia to settle more bills in euros instead of dollars The Russian government has said it will further decrease its investment in the US economy as new sanctions loom. It added that for the time being, no US company active in Russia would be shut down.

The Kremlin said Russia would keep reducing its investment in US government bonds and drastically cut its payments in dollars in response to new sanctions placed on Moscow by Washington. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on state TV at the weekend that the new sanctions to be imposed by the US by the end of Au-

gustover Russiaʼs alleged involvement in the use of a nerve agent against a former spy and his daughter in Britainwould restrict purchases of Russian government bonds, describing the impact as "unpleasant, but not fatal." In response, "we have lowered to the minimum level and will further decrease our investment in US securities," Siluanov said only days after Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned any US move to curb the activities of Russian banks would be seen "as a declaration of economic war."

Idris Elba stokes speculation of a black James Bond The 45-year-old Brit made a name for himself starring in the gritty US television drug drama The Wire from 2002-2004 and won a Golden Globe in 2010 for his role as a murder detective in Luther before moving on to the big screen. The son of a car factory worker from a working-class London neighborhood, Elba is now one of Hollywoodʼs most sought-after stars. He has starred in block-

busters such as Thor, Pacific Rim and Star Trek, and was nominated for a Golden Globe for playing the title role in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.

Rumors swirl around Elba Bond movie boss Barbara Broccoli reportedly told American film producer Antoine Fuqua recently that "it is time" for a non-white actor to play the suave and debonair spy, according to Britainʼs Daily Star.

Osama bin Ladenʼs suspected bodyguard Sami A. barred from re-entering Germany German authorities confirmed on Monday that they had issued a reentry ban against Sami A., a suspectedformer bodyguard for Osama bin Ladenwho was controversially deported from Germany to his native Tunisia last month. A spokesperson for the city of Bochum said the reentry ban was a normal procedure under European Union immigration law.

Once a suspect has been deported, he or she is barred from re-entering any country within the EUʼs Schengen area. The Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper first reported that Sami A. had been listed by security authorities as an undesirable person in the Schengen Information System database.

The Turkey crisis: A threat to Europeʼs economy?

Let there be no mistake — the International Monetary Fund certainly has a rescue plan for Turkey in the drawer, although no one wants to confirm this right now. The IMF also had such a plan back in 2002 when Turkey was an unstable nation, with a 40 percent inflation rate and high unemployment haunting the country. It was only through IMF loans that a state default could be prevented back then.

It was also the very year when Erdoganʼs party, the AKP, rose to power.

The then government under Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan stuck to the terms and conditions the IMF loans entailed.

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185/2018 • 14 August, 2018

Aquarius rescue ship seeks European port for migrants found off Libya Italian transport minister Danilo Toninelli said on Monday that the UK should take in the migrants on board the Aquarius as it was a vessel flying under a Gibraltar flag and currently in Maltese waters. "The boat is now in Maltese waters and has a Gibraltar flag. At this point, the United Kingdom should take responsibility for the safeguarding of the shipwrecked," Toninelli wrote on Twitter. The Italian government has refused to allow rescue ships to dock at its ports, calling for all migrants rescued at sea to be taken to Libya or other EU ports.

Ships passed them by The Aquarius — run by SOS Mediterranee and Doctors without Borders (MSF) — rescued 141 people in two separate operations off the Libyan coast on Friday. Of the rescued people, 25 are thought to have spent 35 hours adrift at sea. The other 116 migrants, 67 of whom are unaccompanied minors, were picked up in a separate operation. The people rescued told the crew that several ships passed them by without offering assistance, according to SOS Mediterranee.

Rafael Nadal and Simona Halep win Rogers Cup titles World number one Rafael Nadal beat unseeded Stefanos Tsitsipas to win the Rogers Cup in Toronto, bringing the Greekʼs stunning run to an end.

Tsitsipas, who turned 20 on Sunday, beat Dominic Thiem, Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev en route to the final but lost 6-2 7-6 (7-4). He had a set point in the 12th game of the second set but could not convert. Earlier, Romaniaʼs Simona Halep beat American Sloane Stephens in three sets to win the womenʼs event in Montreal.

Bayer shares plunge on Monsanto ruling Shares in German pharmaceuticals and chemicals giant Bayer have taken a dive to their lowest level in five years. Investors reacted to a shock US ruling against Monsanto, which now belongs to the Leverkusen-based firm.

Shares in German chemicals behemoth Bayer tumbled more than 10 percent only half an hour into regular trading on Monday morning.

Stock in the Leverkusen-based group fell 10.4 percent to €83.61 ($95.19) during the first 30 minutes of trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. It wasa market reaction to a California court ruling last Friday when a dying groundskeeper

was awarded damages of almost $290 million, with the judges finding that Monsanto — now belonging to Bayer — should have warned buyers that its flagship Roundup weed killer could cause cancer.

Bayer shares dropped to their lowest level since late 2013, preventing an otherwise rather bullish DAX index of the countryʼs 30 largest blue chips from rising.

Will Donald Trumpʼs star on Hollywood Walk of Fame be removed?

The West Hollywood City Council wants the US presidentʼs star taken out of Hollywoodʼs famous sidewalk because of his "disturbing treatment of women."

The West Hollywood City Council voted Monday evening in favor of a resolution calling for the removal of US President Donald Trumpʼs star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the media insider news outlet The Hollywood Reporter first reported. The Council

confirmed its unanimous approval on Tuesday to DW. The resolution urged the Los Angeles City Council and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to take the presidentʼs star out of the pavement "due to his disturbing treatment of women and other actions that do not meet the shared values of the City of West Hollywood, the region, state and country." West Hollywood Mayor John J. Duran said that political motivations were not behind the call to remove Trumpʼs star.

Charlottesville: Between defiance and new hope A year ago, a right-wing extremist march in Charlottesville ended in deadly violence.

Flowers and a little teddy bear have been left on the pavement. Someone has written "Gone — not beaten" in chalk on the wall of the house. This is the place in Charlottesville where Heather Heyer was killed one year ago when a right-wing extremist drove his car straight into a group of counterdemonstrators.

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Risk of poverty at new high in Germany The Düsseldorf-based Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI) highlighted Germanyʼs bitter paradox Friday that despite the countryʼs export-led boom, poverty looms large for nearly one in six of its 82 million residents,, especially among persons with "migratory backgrounds." The statistical poverty threshold is defined as a household having to make do with only 60 percent of the median monthly income as measured across households. A single-person [household] is exposed to poverty risk when the net income undercuts €969 ($1122). For a fourperson family, including two small children, the threshold is €2035 net per month. In its latest report, based on 2017 micro-census data as yet unpublished by federal statisticians, the WSI puts the poverty risk quota for Germany as a whole at 15.8 percent.

The WSI is an economic and social science unit created in 1946 and part of the trade union-affiliated HansBöckler Institute.

Tunisiaʼs president promises inheritance equality to women Tunisiaʼs President Beji Caid Essebsi marked Womenʼs Day in Tunisia on Monday with a speech in which he pledged to refer a law introducing equal inheritance rights for men and women to parliament in the near future. "I propose to make equal inheritance a law," he said in the televised speech, adding that "male and female citizens are equal before the law without discrimination." Currently, under the sharia or Islamic law as applied in Tunisia and in many other Muslim-majority countries, male heirs receive double the assets given to females of the same level of kinship. The proposal to establish inheritance equality is one of the most hotly contested of the social reforms put forward by a commission set up by Essebsi last year to review the countryʼs rights laws. The commission, which has consulted with representatives of civil society and political parties, has also proposed decriminalizing homosexuality and abolishing the death penalty. A protest against the proposed reforms in the capital, Tunis, on Saturday drew thousands of people. A pro-equality demonstration is planned for Monday evening in the city center.