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DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH

Siemens to hike Russia investment despite Crimea scandal A scandal that saw several power plant turbines sold by German industrial giant Siemens to Russia in 2015 and 2016 but delivered to the Russian­annexed Crimean peninsula, violating EU sanctions, was an "individual" error, Siemens CEO Jo Käser told DW on Saturday. Speaking on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, Käser said the firmʼs numerous Russian partners should not be tarred with the same brush. "One should not interpret ... the failure of an individual in this turbine story as the collective guilt of the others," he said. Siemens said that the turbines were ordered and delivered for a pow­ er plant project in Taman in southern Russia. But they were then transferred to Crimea by Siemens’ Russian customer OAO VO TechnoPromExport and installed in new gas­fired power plants in a breach of the sales contract.

Could France take the lead in Europeʼs nuclear security? Behind closed doors, down a long, winding hallway at the Bayerische Hof hotel — home to the Munich Security Conference (MSC) — conversations are taking place that are too complex for the public stage. Or perhaps too delicate. One such conversation is "the future of nuclear deterrence in Europe." Read more:Munich Security Conference 2019 — who can save the liberal world order? Those present for the talks said they focused on thedemise of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treatyand Russiaʼs announced intentionto restart the developmentof medium-range rockets. "Things could get worse than they already are," one participant in the closed-door meeting told DW, referring to the New START treaty between the US and Russia which covers strategic nuclear weapons and is set to expire in 2021.

41/2019 • 18 FEBRUARY, 2019

US ex­cardinal McCarrick defrocked by Vatican over sex abuse cases Pope Francis has called the expulsion

The Vatican has defrocked the ex-archbishop of Washington, Theodore McCarrick, over numerous charges of sex abuse.

Germany minimum wage remains one of lowest in region y y y

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 Hans­Böckler 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 35­cent 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 p

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 German­Jewish photographer from his Berlin birthplace to a

failed business in Amsterdam to internment camps in France and eventu­ ally 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."

Munich Security Conference 2019: Who can save the liberal world order? This yearʼsMunich Security Conferenceis weighed down by a leaden fear: What will happen if the "liberal world order" fails? Though he is not here, the rambunctious specter of POTUS haunts the narrow gold­lit corridors of Munichʼs Bayerische Hof hotel. As US President Donald Trump pulls his country out of hard-won multilateral agreements and painstakingly eked­out treaties, before upending decades of carefully calibrated diplomatic norms with a late-night tweet, the comfortable decorum of the MSC has become fraught. That became obvious during the conferenceʼs main program on Friday, when NATO Secretary­General Jens Stoltenberg grew increasingly exasperated as he batted away different versions of the same question: Do you really still think that Trumpbelieves in NATO?

Israeli Film ʼSynonymsʼ wins 2019 Berlinale Golden Bear award Nadav Lapidʼs quasi-autobiographical quest for identity on the silver screen takes the Golden Bear at the Berlinale 2019. Meanwhile, "So Long, My Son" by Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai won two Silver Bear awards. The Golden Bear, the top award at the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale), went to the Israeli­French­German co-production "Synonyms" by Israeli director Nadav Lapid. The fast­paced film follows an ex­Israeli soldier who rejects his nationality as he moves to France to start a new life and find his true identity.

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41/2019 • 18 February, 2019

Worried about Brexit, Brits stockpile food, supplies Nick Thomas, a 25-year­old 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."

David Beckham: New Salford City co­owner watches non­ league match against Dover Athletic Fans of non­league 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 co­owner last month. Beckham took a 10% stake, joining former Manchester United teammates Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary and Phil Neville as co­owners. With son Romeo, he saw Salford lose 3­1 to Dover in the National League.

EU looks to add Saudi Arabia to ʼdirty­moneyʼ blacklist The EUʼs dirty-money blacklist should be widened to include Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Panama, the European Commission has urged. European Commissioner for Justice Vera Jourova urged the 28-member bloc Wednesday to expand its blacklist from 16 to 23 territories, warning that banking sector risk could "spread like wildfire" when it came tomoneylaunderingby organized criminals and terror­financing. "Europe is open for business, but Europe is not naive," added Jourova, who is originally from the Czech Republic. Read more:EU backs whistleblower protection Inclusion on the blacklist does not trigger EU sanctions, but it does oblige banks in Europe to apply tighter checks on clientsʼ transactions under criteria de-

signed to avoid "systemic impact on the integrity of the EU financial system." The commissionʼs proposed list expansion — still subject to approvals from the European Parliament and EU member states in the next few months — quickly drew rejections. Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed al­Jadaan said Riyadh regretted the move and was working to "improve our regulatory and legislative frameworks." Pre­Brexit Britain, which runs its own but smaller anti-money laundering list, asserted that an expanded EU blacklist would "confuse businesses."

Japanese space probe Hayabusa 2: Mission to explore universeʼs origins p p p g Landing on a moving object in outer space is not an easy feat, but researchers have high hopes for the results. The big moment has come for Japanese space probe Hayabusa 2. On February 22, the "Falcon 2" is supposed to touch down on asteroid Ryugu. "The landing point is decided and how weʼre going to land is confirmed, so we want to do our best to achieve this without making mistakes," Yuichi Tsuda, project manager at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), told reporters. Itʼll be far from the first time that the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

y (JAXA) is examining this space rock. Hayabusa 2 had blasted off in Decem­ ber 2014 on a 3.2 billion-kilometer journey (equivalent to roughly 80,000 trips around the Earthʼs circumference) to Ryugu, whis named after a mythical Japanese under-water castle. The probe carried severallanders that touched down on the asteroidin 2018 and collected information. Among them: the"Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout" (MASCOT)landing vehicle, built by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the French space agency CNES, that took images, investigated minerals, gauged surface temperatures and measured magnetic fields on the asteroid.

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 Grammy­winning 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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Merger between TMobile and Sprint on the line 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. TMobileʼs 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 decision­making process.

Geely the car industryʼs rising ʼprofitability starʼ Ferdinand Dudenhöffer from the CAR Center Automotive Research at Germanyʼs Duisburg­Essen 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 PSA­Opel. The worldʼs largest carmaker, Wolfsburg­based 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 com­ pact car platform, which it developed together with Sweden-based 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.