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DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH

US Republican Congressman Devin Nunes sues Twitter for defamation A US Republican congressman, Devin Nunes, is suing Twitter and a number of its users for $250 million (€220.2 million) in damages, accusing them of defamation and negligence.

Nunesʼ suit alleges that Twitter "shadow bans" conservatives to try and make their messages less visible and that it failed to crack down on parody accounts such as "Devin Nunesʼ Mom" and "Devin Nunesʼ cow" — both of which are anonymous and accused him of obstructing investigations into the president.

Shadow banning, as described by Trump and other conservatives, purportedly involves restricting the visibility of prominent US Republicansʼ messages on the social media site; Twitter disputes the allegations.

Kazakhstanʼs long-serving President Nazarbayev will step down President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has ruled Kazakhstan since the fall of the Soviet Union, announced on Tuesday that he would resign his office. "I have taken the decision to refuse the mandate of the presidency," he said in a televised address. A few weeks ago,Nazarbayev dismissed the countryʼs government as it struggles with low oil prices and domestic discontent. Sanctions against Russia, the countryʼs major trading partner, have also hurt the economy and fomented dissatisfaction with the government.

The president said that KassymJomart Tokayev, speaker of the upper house of parliament and a Nazarbayev loyalist, will take over as the countryʼs acting leader for the remainder of his term, as dictated by the Kazakh Constitution. This term ends in March 2020.

65/2019 • 20 MARCH, 2019

Trump considers supporting NATO benefits for Brazil US President Donald Trump has welcomed his Brazilian counterpart

US President Donald Trump has welcomed his Brazilian counterpart, Jair Bolsonaro, to the White House. The two leaders exchanged football jerseys, while Trump hinted at US help for Brazil to join the OECD, or even NATO.

Paris joins Hong Kong and Singapore as worldʼs most expensive city The French capital shares the title of the worldʼs most expensive place to live with Hong Kong and Singapore. Economic woes have made Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo and Istanbul much cheaper.

Singapore is one of the worldʼs three most expensive cities for the sixth year running, according to The Economist Intelligence Unitʼs 2019 Worldwide Cost of Living Survey, released on Tuesday. The southeast Asian citystate shares the tag of the most costly place to live with Hong Kong and Paris. When the prices of more than 150 items were compared in 133

cities around the world, the French capital moved up one place in the rankings compared to last year. Parisʼ advance perhapsbolsters the central case of Franceʼs yellow vest protesters, who have blockaded major roads and cities during the past four months over the rising cost of living. The Swiss cities of Zurich and Geneva were ranked fourth and joint fifth respectively, followed by Japanʼs Osaka and Seoul in South Korea. Israelʼs second-most populous city, Tel Aviv, entered the Top 10 for the first time — the only Middle Eastern highranked representative in the survey.

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."

Germany eligible to deport refugees to EU countries with poor living conditions The European Court of Justice (ECJ) on Tuesday cleared the way for Germany to deport asylum-seekers to other EU member states. Judges in the Luxembourg-based court ruled that weak social benefit systems and living conditions in certain countries were not grounds to block transfers. Shortcomings in the welfare system of a member state should not prevent asylumseekers from being deported there.Exceptions apply only in extreme cases, where the individual is deprived of the "most basic needs, such as feeding, washing and finding shelter," the judges said.This does not cover "significant poverty" or a wish to have German social standards. The judges pointed out that the EU asylum system was based on mutual trust and that decisions taken by EU states should respect human rights.They also ruled that asylum claims could be rejected in cases where the applicant already enjoys subsidiary protection in another EU country.

Court orders Germany to question US drone strikes A court in Münster on Tuesday ruled partly in favor ofthree plaintiffs from Yemenwho alleged that their relatives were killed in a 2012 US drone strike that was relayed via an airbase in Germany. The Münster Higher Administrative Court ruled that the German government must take "appropriate measures" to ascertain whether US operations conducted via the Ramstein Air Base are in line with international law. The court ruled that Berlin should also, if necessary, press Washington to adhere to international law on drone strikes.

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65/2019 • 20 March, 2019

Worried about Brexit, Brits stockpile food, supplies 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."

Leroy Sané primed for leadership role a year on from World Cup heartache What a difference a year makes. Not 12 months after being axed from Germany’s squad on the eve of a World Cup, Leroy Sané has developed intoa leading figure in the team. "Leroy showed us in the Nations Legaue games that he’s made a big step up," claimed Germany coach Joachim Löw ahead of Tuesday’s friendly clash with Serbia in Mainz. "He’s scored his first goalsfor us and done a good job. He can become an extremely important figure in the national team."

Germanyʼs Wolfgang Schäuble calls for EU reform The man who became synonymous with Germanyʼs insistence on austerity during the eurozone debt crisis wants the bloc to have a common budget and finance minister.

He also thinks decision-making should be streamlined.

Former German Finance MinisterWolfgang Schäuble has called for giving the European Union more clout to set finance policy and ending the unanimity requirement in blocwide decision-making. The call by Schäuble, who was the face of Germanyʼs push for indebted EU countriesto pass stringent austerity measures, comes amid a debate between Germany and France about how far EU finance reforms should go. Schäubleʼs key points: Speaking to regional public broadcaster rbb, Schäuble said: The European Union needs a common

budget; it needs to bundle revenues and more finance policy competencies before member states agree to create the post of EU finance minister.Only once EU member states agree to these changes would the post make sense: "As long as you donʼt have this, a finance minister alone doesnʼt make sense. Because then the position is just symbolic without any powers."The bloc should also give up on the requirement that all member states agree on joint decisions: "Unanimity means the slowest [member state] can block everything."

Germany named drug use capital following Europe-wide sewage study Germany has topped a Europewide study for crystal meth and amphetamine use following close examination of the countryʼs wastewater.

Scientists examining the common effluentin 20 European countries discovered residents and visitors to the German city of Erfurt used an inordinate amount of the illicit drug methamphetamine, the most for any of the 73 European towns and cities taking part in Europeʼs largest wastewater drug analysis. Samples from an estimated

46 million people across the bloc were analyzed for traces of four illicit drugs — amphetamine, cocaine, MDMA (or ecstasy) and methamphetamine — in an attempt to better understand drugtaking habits. Read more: EU Drug Markets Report: Europeans spend 31 billion euros on illicit drugs every year Through daily wastewater analysis, scientists were able to estimate the amount of drugs taken within the community over a one-week period by looking at metabolites, a substance produced when the body breaks down drugs, which is then excreted in urine.

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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Global property markets on the turn Boom times in many global real estate markets are turning to bust.

Australia, several Asian countries and North America are starting to see large price corrections that are leaving speculators racing for cover.

Australiaʼs housing market is witnessing its steepest annual fall in 15 years.

In Sydney, prices are down 10 percent in a year. House prices in Sydney doubled in a decade on the back of Australiaʼs booming economy, with the median price still being an eyewatering 1,062,619 Australian dollars (€668,391, $762,391). But tighter lending criteria for mortgages have helped fuel the drop. Bangkokʼs condo market cools Bangkok condominiums have been popular with Chinese investors over the past five years, with prices rising at 5-10 percent per annum. A building boom has, however, left 40,000 units unsold, with another 53,000 new apartments to be launched this year. While properties in other Asian cities have doubled in value as a result of limited land space, the Thai capital has plenty of room to grow — and is.

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 Sweden-based Volvo.