DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH
How right-wing nationalism fuels climate denial Martin Hultman: Until the mid-1980s, there was a really strong consensus between politicians and scientists that climate change is really acute and that we have to do something about it. So at that point, politicians with various political ideologies, from Ronald Reagan to Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev, actually got together and thought of this as a global threat to humanity. They agreed that we have to set up bodies of interdisciplinary research and policies and to tackle this threat together. Around the same time, the extractive industries — the oil and coal industries — started to fund climate change denial research to promote their own interests. They set up various think tanks, like the US-based Heartland Institute, and started opposing climate change research.
Islamist threat lingers in Philippines despite Marawi victory Abdul, his young face hidden by a headscarf, stares into the camera as he contemplates his shattered dream. He has lost dozens of friends. His family has been displaced. "Our original plan was limited to attacking the military camp in Marawi and expelling the soldiers from the city," he tells DW. The homegrown jihadi leaderswho laid siege to Marawiunder the banner of the "Islamic State" (IS) had convinced Abdul and his fellow fighters that the Philippine government would then withdraw. "They told us we would get what we had always wanted: an Islamic state here in Marawi." More than a year after theheaviest urban fightingin the Philippines since World War II, the historic center of Marawi, the countryʼs largest Muslim city on the southern island of Mindanao, remains sealed off.
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European Commission accepts Italyʼs revised budget proposal Italy has promised to reduce its deficit targets for the next three years
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the long awaited agreement allowed his government to honor its main commitments and boost the economy.
Venezuela: Erdogan and Maduro slam US sanctions Venezuela has suffered from a severe political and economic crisis since a collapse in oil prices several years ago. It has sought to bolster its ties with Turkey as it faces down a range of US sanctions. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced US sanctions against Venezuela at a joint press conference with his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro in Caracas on Monday. Ties between the two countries have grown closer in recent months as Venezuela struggles to overcome a severe economic and political crisis. The Turkish president said Venezuela
had been unfairly targeted with economic sanctions, adding that he "did not approve of these measures that ignore the rules of global trade." He said his "friend" Maduro was facing "manipulative attacks from certain countries and acts of sabotage from economic assassins." He vowed to strengthen trade ties with Venezuela to help alleviate the economic crisis. He also praised Maduro, saying the Venezuelan leaderʼs "exemplary attitude is very valuable at a time when enmity toward Islam has risen and Western countries are stoking hostility toward foreigners."
Client Earth: Changing environmental law, the world over James Thornton, head of public interest law firm Client Earth, holds governments around the world accountable for environmental damage. He tells DW how the law can be harnessed for the good of people and the planet. James Thornton: The thing that allows a really small group of people to change the world is using the enormous power of the law. Legal systems encapsulate, really, what a society thinks about itself and the rules that
people in the particular society have mutually agreed to be governed by. It always includes enforcement mechanisms. If, for example, a government has passed a law about air pollution or water pollution and then it doesnʼt do the right thing and protect the people like the law says, we — using the power of the law — can go to the courts and force the government to do the right thing. Thatʼs an example of how just a few people can actually make a big difference.
German cabinet approves skilled labor draft law Angela Merkelʼs Cabinet has approveda new immigration law that German businesses have been crying out for, and which has been the subject of political debate in the country for 30 years. Three ministers appeared before the press on Wednesday to present the fruit of their tortuous inter-departmental negotiations: a law aimed at attracting skilled foreign labor that is due to come into force in 2020, but could still struggle to get past the conservative wing of Merkelʼs Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in parliament. "This is a good day for modern Germany," Labor Minister Hubertus Heil told the assembled reporters, while Economy Minister Peter Altmaier hailed a "historic day" that proved the effectiveness of the much-abused grand coalition between the CDU and the Social Democratic Party (SPD).
EU reaches agreement on single-use plastic ban A plan to ban single-use plastic products such as disposable plates and straws has been agreed. EU member states and the EU parliament still have to give the provisional agreement the go-ahead. European lawmakers have reached an agreement on a ban of single-use plastic products, the Austrian presidency said in Brussels on Wednesday. The move is aimed at making the EU a world leader in using sustainable alternatives that avoid marine pollution.
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