DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH
Iraq braces for more unrest as Basra protests gather pace
An estimated 200 protesters gathered on Monday morning at the main gate leading to three of Iraqʼs major oil fields in the southern oil-exporting city of Basra. Protests in Basra, Iraqʼs second-largest city, started last Tuesdaywhen security forces opened fire, killing one person and wounding five. They soon spread to other provinces. Read more: Iraq hangs 13 ʼISʼ prisoners as PM Haidar al-Abadi calls for ʼjust retributionʼ The oil hub of Basra and other parts of the Shiʼite south have long been neglected, first by Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein and then by Shiʼite-led governments. But an ongoing political crisis and the recent rhetoric of Grand Ayatollah alSistani, the top Shiʼite cleric in the country have also clearly aggravated the situation.
Mexicoʼs president-elect, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, slashes his own salary Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has vowed to slim down Mexicoʼs bloated government budget by taking a massive pay cut when he takes over as president in December. "What we want is for the budget to reach everybody," he told reporters on Sunday. He said he would take home 108,000 pesos per month (around $5,700, €4,900) – around 40 percent of current President Enrique Pena Nietoʼs salary of 270,000 pesos per month. Left-wing Lopez Obrador, who is also known as AMLO, says he wanted to reduce his salary even further, but decided against it so as not breed resentment among future Cabinet members who often leave high-paying jobs to serve as ministers.
162/2018 • 18 JULY, 2018
Barack Obama retraces his African-American roots Can he live up to the expectations of him as a private citizen?
Africa had high hopes for Obama’s presidency, many of which he did not fulfill. Now he’s in Kenya and South Africa for the first time since leaving office.
US rejects EU request for Iran sanctions relief The US said it would impose "unprecedented financial pressure on Iran." The refusal to grant EU businesses an exemption for Iran sanctions pushes Europe and the US further down a collision course over ties to Tehran. The United States has rejected a European request for some of its key businesses to be exempt from US sanctions on Iran. Ministers from Germany, France, the UK and European Union last month requested broad carve-outs from Washingtonʼs Iran sanctions for sectors including health care, finance, automotive and energy doing business with Iran. Read more:In Brussels, Mike Pompeo gives EU a Twitter lecture on
Iran In a letter to European nations, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin rejected the appeal, NBC News reported, citing US and European officials. "We will seek to provide unprecedented financial pressure on the Iranian regime," the letter stated. It also said the United States would only make exemptions if it served its own national security interests. Washingtonʼs refusal, while widely expected, adds to already strained trans-Atlantic relations after President Donald Trump launched repeated verbal broadsides against long-time US allies and threatened to escalate a brewing trade war.
Nazi-looted Cezanne painting to be shared between Swiss, French museums The Bern Museum of Fine Art in Switzerland will retain ownership of a Paul Cezanne painting found ina Naziera trovein 2014, the artistʼs heirs confirmed on Tuesday. They also said that the museum had agreed to regularly exhibit the work in Cezanneʼs hometown of Aix-en-Provence, France. "This solution in the spirit of the Swiss-French friendship and partnership allows two great museums, Bern Museum of Fine Art and the Musee
Granet in Aix-en-Provence, to show a masterpiece by our grandfather Paul Cezanne for the benefit and enjoyment of a great audience," said Philippe Cezanne (pictured above), greatgrandson of the master painter. The painting was found in the nowinfamous Gurlitt collection, originally amassed by German art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt under direction from the Nazis to sell or get rid of "degenerate" art seized from museums.
Hundreds of crocodiles killed for ʼrevengeʼ in Indonesia Nearly 300 crocodiles were killed by angry townspeople in Indonesiaʼs West Papua province, officials confirmed on Monday. The incident in Sorong district occurred on Friday after a local man was killed by one of the animals. The 48-year-old farmer was reportedly killed on Friday when he entered a crocodile sanctuary in the Klamalu neighborhood as he was cutting grass for his cattle. Following his funeral on Saturday, the incensed villagers took machetes, hammers, shovels and other weapons to the breeding pond to exact revenge on the reptiles.
Brexit: Senior Conservative calls for second referendum Remain-supporting Justine Greening wrote in The Times newspaper on Monday that a second Brexit referendum was "the only way" to resolve the ongoing parliamentary stalemate over how the UK plans to extricate itself from the 28-member bloc. The former education minister said Mayʼs recent proposals would satisfiy neither those wanting a decisive break between London and Brussels in a socalled "hard" Brexit nor those wanting to maintain close trading links between the UK and EU. Speaking later on BBC Radio 4ʼs Today program, Greening said she expected other senior Tories to support the idea and outlined a system using first- and second-preference votes to ensure the preferred model achieved more then 50 percent of the final vote.
weather today BUDAPEST
22 / 26 °C Precipitation: 0 mm
162/2018 • 18 July, 2018
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte dismisses Roma census proposal as ʼunconstitutionalʼ Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Tuesday criticizedInterior Minister Matteo Salviniʼs plans to create a Roma "register." "No one is planning to create files or conduct a census on the basis of ethnicity, which would be unconstitutional because it is clearly discriminatory," Conte said in a statement Tuesday. Read more: Forgotten victims of Hungaryʼs Roma murders Conte also called for checks to ensure Roma children had access to school services, as "they are often kept out of compulsory education courses." Salvini, who also serves as deputy prime minister, announced his intentions of carrying out a Roma census during a television question-andanswer session on regional television channel TeleLombardia on Monday. The far-right League party leader said the census would mean Roma who were in the country illegally could be deported, but "as for the Italian Roma, unfortunately, one has to keep them at home."
Four years on from 2014, Mario Götze faces yet another decisive season
Airbnb on collision course with EU Airbnb has been handed an ultimatum by the European Union, who have instructed them to abide by their rules or risk financial penalties. According to the EU Commission, Airbnbʼs pricing is not sufficiently transparent. Airbnb, the popular property rental website, has been warned by the European Commission to comply with its consumer standards or face financial penalties. According to the Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, Airbnbʼs pricing is not sufficiently transparent, and its terms do not fully guarantee the rights of European consumers. "Airbnb has now until the end of August to propose detailed solu-
tions on how to bring its conduct in compliance with EU consumer legislation," the Commission said.Read more: Court sides with Berlin over Airbnb ban The EU said the platform needs to align itself with EU consumer rights laws by ensuring prices shown on the platform are inclusive of all fees, and should empower consumers to take legal action against their hosts, should they have reason to do so.
No help for the infertile in Africa Infertility comes with devastating social, cultural, emotional and economic consequences for young couples in Africa. 33-year-old Goana Dintwe from Botswana has endured the stigma in a country where infertility isalways blamed on women. "There are so many harsh names that people like me are called because we cannot conceive," she said. "We are called less than a woman. We are called barren." Apart from her painful long-
ing for a child, Dintweʼs infertility has also strained her marriage. Infertility is on the rise in Africa. It is almost twice as high on the continent as in affluent industrial countries. In addition to the personal grief and suffering it causes, infertility can create broader problems, particularly for the woman, in terms of stigma, economic hardship and social isolation. But not many couples can afford expensive assisted reproductive techniques like in vitro fertilization (IVF).
It has been four years since Mario Götze scored the goal that won the World Cup for Germany, but since then, itʼs mostly been downhill for him. Is this the season for Götze to return to his former greatness?
Will extreme weather become even deadlier? With extreme weather causing unimaginable disasters, and extreme weather events on the rise, some experts believe many more could die if nothing is done. Heavy rains and widespread flooding killed nearly 200 people in western Japan; meanwhile, an unprecedented heat wave in eastern Canada killed around 70 people last week. Against this background, climate researchers are warning that casualties related to extreme weather events could increase if greenhouse gas emissions remain unchecked.
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ʼYeah, nahʼ: Kiwi startup defies German giantʼs order to stop saying ʼhelloʼ New Zealand startup My Food Bag, which delivers fresh ready-to-cook ingredients, issued a tongue-in-cheek response to a cease-and-desist notice from Berlin-based Hello Fresh. Hello Fresh had taken issue with its Kiwi competitor using the phrase "Hello Fresh." The letter, published in the New Zealand Herald and other domestic media, is replete with Kiwi colloquialisms and phrases in the countryʼs indigenous Maori language. The response, from Aotearoa, the Maori name for New Zealand, begins with a Maori greeting, to HelloFresh executives Thomas Griesel and Dr. Christian Ries. "Kia ora" is translated as "hello." "Kia ora Herr Griesel and Herr Ries, Greetings from Aotearoa. We donʼt often get heavyweight German multina‐ tional corporations taking the time to write to us Kiwis."
Ceasefire on Israel-Gaza border largely holds as UN warns sides are on ʼbrink of warʼ A ceasefire announced by Hamas largely held along the IsraelGaza border on Sunday, a day after the most intense exchange of fire between Israel and the Palestinian group since the 2014 Gaza war. Israeli warplanes carried out dozens of airstrikes in the densely populated Gaza Strip on Saturday on what it said were Hamas military, training and supply targets, while Hamas and Islamic Jihad fired nearly 200 rockets and mortars at Israel. Read more: Israel and Gazaʼs militant groups agree to ceasefire The Israeli airstrikes wounded more than 20 people and killed two teenage boys, Palestinian health officials said, while a Hamas rocket injured four Israelis. Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, and Islamic Jihad announced the Egyptian and UN-brokered ceasefire late Saturday. The Israeli military said its response would depend on the situation on the ground.