DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH
German police raid suspected KKK membersʼ homes German police on Wednesday raided 12 apartments in eight different German states belonging to suspected members of an extreme-right group calling itself the National Socialist Knights of the Ku Klux Klan Deutschland. A total of 200 police officers searched properties in Baden-Württemberg, Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland Palatinate, Saxony Anhalt and Thuringia. More than 100 weapons — including air guns, swords, machetes and knives — were seized in the raids, prosecutors and regional police in the southwestern state of BadenWürttemberg said. Read more: ʼThe KKK is active here in Germanyʼ The raids targeted 17 people between the ages of 17 and 59, but there was no official word of any arrests. Authorities say around 40 people are under investigation.
Record traffic jams slow down German autobahns German roads experienced a record 745,000 traffic jams in 2018, a 3 percent increase over 2017, the ADAC, Germanyʼs largest automobile club, said Thursday. The ADAC said the traffic jams, which occurred at a rate of about 2,000 per day, caused a back-up of 1.5 million kilometers (932,000 miles) and forced motorists to sit in their cars for an extra 459,000 hours. The automobile club cited an increase in average distance traveled, which Germanyʼs Federal Highway Research Institute pegged at 0.4 percent, for the increase in traffic suggestion. It also said there were 3 percent more bottlenecks caused by construction sites.
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Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras wins confidence vote The vote came after a key minister in the Greek government quit last week
The vote came after a key minister in the Greek government quit last week over the Macedonia name dispute. Prime Minister Tsipras said he would put the ratification of the Macedonia name-change agreement on the agenda.
Theresa May calls for ʼway forwardʼ on Brexit after winning no confidence vote The British prime minister called on politicians to "put self-interest aside" ahead of further Brexit negotiations. Mayʼs government survived a vote of no confidence a day after her draft Brexit deal was voted down. UK Prime Minister Theresa May won a confidence vote in Parliament on Wednesday and then appealed to lawmakers to reach a consensus on Brexit. "This evening the government has won the confidence of Parliament. This now gives us the opportunity to focus on finding a way forward on Brexit," May said outside 10 Downing Street in London. "Now
MPs have made clear what they donʼt want, we must all work constructively together to set out what parliament does want," she added. Lawmakers voted 325 to 306 that they had confidence in Mayʼs government just a day after voting down herwithdrawal agreementwith the European Union. May now has until Monday to present her plan on how the government should move forward. Read more: Brexit: What happens next? May said she believed Parliament had a duty "put self-interest aside" and deliver on the2016 Brexit referendumresult, in which UK citizens voted to withdraw from the EU.
Novel based on Jew ʼcatcherʼ Stella Kübler stirs controversy "We have a new literature debate," wrote Hannah Lühmann of the Die Welt newspaper when reflecting on the bombshell publication of Stella, a novel by journalist, author and war correspondent Takis Würger. Published by the prestigious Hanser Verlag on January 11, Stella fictionalizes the true story of Jewess Stella Kübler (née Goldschlag), who as a so-called "catcher" betrayed other Jews gone underground
to the Gestapo. Würgerʼs second novel was inspired by the award-winning journalistʼs fascination for the subject. But while itʼs too early to judge the success of this study of a character who is already a book subject — for example, Peter Wydenʼs Stella: One Womanʼs True Tale of Evil, Betrayal, and Survival in Hitlerʼs Germany — the vehement re-
sponse to the novel by German critics has been striking.
Germany: Arms exports approvals down a quarter The German government approved nearly 23 percent fewer arms exports in 2018 compared to the previous year. That is according to an Economy Ministry response to an inquiry from Green Party lawmaker Omid Nouripour published in local media on Thursday. Total arms exports approvals amounted to €4.82 billion ($5.47 billion) compared to €6.24 billion in 2017. A downward trend has been recorded every year since 2015, when Germany exported a recordbreaking €7.86 billion in arms. The report cited the governmentʼs decision in November tostop all arms exports to Saudi Arabiain response to the assassination of Saudi critic and journalist Jamal Khashoggi. However, the government was already considering a ban due toSaudiʼs involvement in the brutal war in Yemen.
Russian lawmakers to vote on Council of Europe boycott Russian lawmakers are expected to vote againstsending a delegation to the Council of Europe (CoE)following a Thursday morning session. "We have reached the conclusion that there is no basis for us to (…) return to the Council of Europe" Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin told journalists after a meeting with representatives of the parliamentary parties on Wednesday. "We also consider it justified not to pay the contributions into the Council of Europe this year, because our delegation does not have the possibility of full representations and of representing the interests of our citizens."
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