The major fire at a chemical plant in the northern French city of Rouen, which is considered to be particularly dangerous, has been extinguished, the Prefecture of Normandy announced on Friday. The fire broke out overnight on Thursday. No one was injured in the incident. The fire brigade was deployed with around 200 fire engines.

Residents were urged not to leave their homes. Buildings within a radius of 500 meters were evacuated, schools and kindergartens remained closed on Thursday. Additives for lubricants are produced in the chemical plant on the banks of the Seine. The factory belongs to the company Lubrizol of US billionaire Warren Buffett and is subject to the so-called Seveso Directive of the EU, which imposes particularly strict safety requirements.

Around 400 people work at the plant. The chemical factory has already made headlines in the past - for example, when the gas methane thiol escaped through a leak in 2013 and the surrounding area smelled of rotten eggs. In 2015, around 2,000 litres of mineral oil flowed into the city's sewage system following an industrial accident.

For two months, a woman from Washington searched for her missing dog - and quit her job. The seven-year-old Border Collie had run away from the hotel room during a short vacation in Montana. 57 days were missing any trace of the dog - but Carole King did not give up.

"""It was terrible. I felt sick,"" Carole King told the Daily Inter Lake. She and her husband had left dog Katie in the hotel room while they went to dinner. When they returned to the hotel afterwards, Katie had disappeared. They were looking for the animal, but to no avail."

"Hoping that Katie might still be somewhere in the hotel, Carole King went to the reception. ""The clerk says, ""She left about four, four and a half hours ago,"""" recalls Carole King to ""Daily Inter Lake."" When the automatic front door opened, Katie immediately ran out. Presumably, a loud thunder had panicked the dog."

"With flyers and calls in Facebook groups, the Kings searched for their beloved dog. But days turned into weeks. ""I never gave up. I never lost hope,"" Carole King told ""Daily Inter Lake,"" who quit her job as a postal worker to continue her search for Katie."

"57 days after Katie's disappearance, Carole King got a call: A man came forward and said that Katie was in his yard. But when King got there, Katie had already disappeared again. She searched the neighborhood and suddenly her dog was standing under a tree. ""I just hugged her. I didn't want to let her go,"" King recalled, according to ""Daily Inter Lake."" ""The tears flowed. People stopped in their vehicles, got out and hugged us. I think the whole neighborhood knew we had found her."""

Losses in the Bundeswehr: Machine guns disappear without a trace

"In recent years, the Bundeswehr has lost numerous weapons and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition, including three machine guns. In most cases, the whereabouts are unclear. The opposition speaks of a ""scary"" extent."

In the Bundeswehr, weapons and ammunition repeatedly disappear - many of them so far without a trace. Since the beginning of 2014, the force has recorded the loss of 39 weapons, 39 weapon parts and almost 20,000 rounds of ammunition. This is clear from a list of the Federal Ministry of Defense classified as a classified matter, on which the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland reports.

According to the paper from the office of Defense Secretary Peter Tauber of the CDU, two weapons, one weapon part and 3,474 rounds of ammunition have reappeared so far. The weapons and weapon parts still missing include six MG3 machine guns, eleven G3 rifles, four G36 rifles, six signal pistols and two P8 pistols. In addition, 30 weapon tubes for MG3 machine guns are missing.

"The extent of losses of weapons and ammunition in the Bundeswehr was ""scary,"" said the left-wing member of parliament Martina Renner. This was all the more true since hardly anything had been found in the course of investigations. The left-wing politician spoke of a ""needy balance sheet."" Renner criticized that it was not clear from the list whether among the missing ammunition was also the one that had been found in connection with the investigation against the suspected Bundeswehr officer Franco A. ""And this despite the fact that a supporter of Franco A. was recently convicted for possession of this ammunition,"" said Renner."

"More than two months after being detained by the Iranian authorities, the British oil tanker ""Stena Impero"" left the port of the city of Bandar Abbas this Friday. As ship observation data from Refinitiv showed, the tanker started moving and left the Iranian port. The destination was Port Rashid in the United Arab Emirates."

The tanker had actually already been released by the Iranian government on Monday, but it initially remained in Iranian waters. The shipping company said that they wanted to wait for an official decision from Tehran.

"The ""Stena Impero"" had been raised on 19 July by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the Strait of Hormuz on charges of violating safety regulations. However, it was suspected that Iran was responding to the controversial, temporary fixing of an Iranian oil tanker off the British-owned Gibraltar."

The Strait of Hormuz is one of the most important sea lanes in the world. It connects the Persian Gulf with the Indian Ocean. Much of the global oil export is shipped through the strait. Tensions in the region have intensified immensely in recent months. Merchant shipping has been drawn into the conflict between the United States and Iran. There have been several incidents involving tankers and drones.

Merkel pays tribute to the courage of the people in the Peaceful Revolution

"Chancellor Angela Merkel has acknowledged the commitment of the people in the GDR who took to the streets 30 years ago during the Peaceful Revolution. In the autumn of 1989, courageous citizens had shaken the former GDR regime, said Merkel at a ceremony of the Thuringian CDU faction on the upcoming Day of German Unity in Erfurt. The chancellor recalled, among other things, the occupation of the Stasi headquarters. ""The terror was taken away from state security,"" she said."

Tesla’s quarter may hold a record. Despite the delivery boom, there have been recent losses at the electric car company.

"New York.Tesla CEO Elon Musk has given his electric car company a strong boost on the stock market with the prospect of new record numbers. ""We have the opportunity to reach our first quarter with 100,000 deliveries,"" Musk wrote in an email to Tesla employees published by the industry blog ""Electrek""."

Demand was strong, so that Tesla could record 110,000 orders, Musk’s circular continued. The challenge was to get the cars to customers quickly. To do this, Tesla had to provide as many resources as possible at the end of the quarter.

Investors liked this: Tesla’s shares went out of trading with an increase of more than six percent. The share price hasn’t risen that much in almost four months. In the second quarter, Tesla delivered a good 95,000 cars, matching its previous record.

Musk needs records to achieve his high goals. In 2019, he wants to deliver a total of 360,000 to 400,000 cars. For this, he will have to produce six figures in the current and coming quarter. Above all, the cheapest Tesla Model 3 is in demand, but here the profit margins are low. Despite the boom, there have been losses recently.

A kind of brake in the cerebrum prevents people from tickling themselves. Scientists at the Humboldt University in Berlin discovered this with the help of experiments on rats, as they announced on Thursday evening. Progress has also been made on the question of why children defend themselves so fiercely against tickling, only to demand more.

Finally, it has also been shown why only the approach of a tickling hand triggers laughter even before the touch. This is due to a low-lying layer in the cerebrum, which already triggers laughter with the expectation of tickling.

"According to the data, previous research showed that rats react with ""laughter"" in the ultrasound range when they are tickled by humans. This ""laughter"" is mediated by the part of the cerebral cortex that serves the central processing of haptic perception."

Until now, it has been assumed that the brain can distinguish between self-touch and touch by others - which is why people cannot tickle themselves. However, the Berlin researchers have now found in the experiments on the rats that laughter as well as the activity of the relevant area of the cerebral cortex are suppressed during a self-touch. This is also the case when living beings clean themselves. However, during the external contact and tickling by the scientists, the activity in the brain and the impulse to laugh were intensified.

But if the self-touch and the touch by others happen at the same time, the laughter is also suppressed. This indicates that the brain of the rat cannot distinguish between the self-touch and the touch by others. The new findings suggested that people cannot tickle themselves, because the self-touch activates a brake in the cerebrum.

The rats were also trained to tickle themselves. Thus, they sometimes broke off this initiation prematurely in the experiment, showed flight behavior or terror. This ambivalence is similar to the behavior of the children. The ambivalence of tickling is a behavioral reaction that is the same in rats and humans.

Disaster averted: Major fire at French chemical plant extinguished

The major fire at what is considered to be a particularly dangerous chemical plant in the northern French city of Rouen has been extinguished, the prefecture of Normandy told the AFP news agency on Friday. The fire broke out on Thursday night.

According to the authorities, no hazardous substances have leaked. The samples taken give no cause for concern, as Prefect Pierre-André Durand said at a press conference on Friday morning. No one was injured in the incident. The fire brigade was deployed with around 200 fire engines.

Residents were urged not to leave their homes. Buildings within a radius of 500 metres were evacuated, and schools and kindergartens remained closed on Thursday.

Factory belongs to the company Lubrizol of US billionaire Warren Buffett

Additives for lubricants are produced in the chemical plant on the banks of the Seine. The factory belongs to the company Lubrizol of US billionaire Warren Buffett and is subject to the EU's so-called Seveso Directive, which imposes particularly strict safety requirements. Around 400 people work in the plant.

The chemical factory has already made headlines in the past - for example, when the gas methane thiol escaped through a leak in 2013 and the surrounding area smelled of rotten eggs. In 2015, around 2,000 litres of mineral oil flowed into the city's sewage system following an industrial accident.

The Prime Minister’s sister commented on Boris Johnson’s speech at the first session of Parliament after the compulsory break was lifted on Wednesday evening. The Prime Minister is threatening to lead the country out of the EU without an agreement on 31 October if Brussels does not agree to his demands for changes to the Brexit agreement. However, it is unclear how he intends to achieve this.

"Speaking about Cox, who had campaigned for Britain to remain in the European Union, the Prime Minister said: ""The best way to honour the memory of Jo Cox and reunite this country would be to leave the EU."" Cox was murdered by a right-wing extremist during the 2016 referendum campaign."

"More than eight years after the attacks in Oslo and Utöya with 77 dead, a memorial in honour of the victims will be unveiled in Norway on Saturday. The monument ""Jernrosene"" (English: the Iron Roses) consists of around 1,000 iron rose replicas. They commemorate the roses laid by thousands of people in the days and weeks after the attacks in front of the cathedral in Oslo."

The project by the artists Tobbe Malm and Tone Karlsrud is to be unveiled at the same location - the roses were forged by people from all over the world, including survivors and relatives of the victims. Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit, among others, are expected to attend the opening.

On July 22, 2011, the right-wing terrorist Anders Behring Breivik first detonated a car bomb in the government district of Oslo and then shot dozens of participants in a holiday camp of the youth organization of the Social Democratic Workers' Party on the island of Utöya. A total of 77 people were killed in the attacks.

"The UN general debate did not bring a solution to the Iran conflict. But now there is one less problem. The British oil tanker ""Stena Impero"" detained in Iran was able to set sail again. It could be a piece of the puzzle in the peace plan of Iranian President Rouhani."

"The British oil tanker ""Stena Impero"", which has been detained in the Strait of Hormuz in Iran since mid-July, is back in international waters. After being released by Iranian authorities, the ship is on its way to Dubai, the shipping company Stena Bulk announced."

"The ""Stena Impero"" has left the port of Bandar Abbas and the crew is now going to Dubai for medical examinations, among other things, said shipping chief Erik Hånell. Around noon, the ship left Iranian waters. ""It's nice that it's over,"" he told the Swedish television station SVT."

"The Foreign Office in London called the fixing of the ship illegal. ""This is part of a pattern of attempts to interfere with the freedom of the seas. We are working with our international partners to uphold shipping and international law,"" it said in a statement on Friday."

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards had detained the tanker on 19 July on charges of having violated regulations of the law of the sea in the Persian Gulf. Seven of the 23 crew members had already been released at the beginning of September. The remaining 16 crew members were doing well according to the circumstances, said Hånell. They had behaved professionally in view of the difficult and exhausting situation over the past ten weeks. The shipping company is now working to reunite them with their families as soon as possible.

"The British government suspected behind the fixing of the ""Stena Impero"" a reaction to a similar incident in British Gibraltar: There, a supertanker with oil from Iran, which is said to have been destined for Syria, had been put on the chain at the beginning of July. According to the authorities, the delivery violated EU sanctions against the war country Syria. The British had received the reference to the ship from the US."

"Iran spoke of ""piracy"" and threatened consequences. In mid-August, the ""Adrian Darya-1"" was finally released. London vehemently rejected suggestions that it had been a barter deal to free the ""Stena Impero""."

The Strait of Hormuz is one of the most important sea lanes in the world. It connects the Persian Gulf with the Indian Ocean. Much of the world's oil exports are shipped through the strait. Tensions in the region have intensified immensely in recent months. Merchant shipping has been drawn into the conflict between the United States and Iran. There have been several incidents involving tankers and drones.

The nuclear dispute between the two countries is behind the tensions between Tehran and Washington. The Americans accuse the Iranian leadership of wanting to build nuclear weapons. Iran rejects this. The US single-handedly withdrew from the international nuclear agreement in 2018, which was intended to prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb and at the same time end its political and economic isolation. Since then, the US government has been pressuring the leadership in Tehran with massive economic sanctions against the country in order to force a stricter agreement extended to other areas. Iran has so far resisted the pressure.

"Because of the dispute over the ""Stena Impero"" and other incidents involving tankers in the Persian Gulf and oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, the US is working on a coalition for the military protection of merchant ships in the region."

"At the UN General Assembly in New York, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had presented a plan for security and peace in the Strait of Hormuz. With the ""Coalition of Hope"" initiative for the Persian Gulf, Iran, together with the Arab Gulf states and without foreign protective powers, wanted to ensure the security of shipping in the Persian Gulf."

India is building a better future with its protectionist economic policy.

"India would actually be predestined to be a ""war profiteer."" In view of the punitive tariffs imposed by America's President Donald Trump on Chinese manufacturers, foreign producers in the People's Republic are being forced to relocate. Financial executives of Asian companies that are considering moving their production from China to another country cite India as one of the preferred alternatives in a survey by UBS. Of course, this has not only to do with the vagaries of the Sino-American trade war. With a huge pool of young workers and a domestic market of 1.3 billion consumers, India seems destined to play a more significant role in the far-flung global production chain."

"But now India itself has come into Trump's focus. pejoratively dubbed the ""Kingdom of Tariffs"" by the White House, America withdrew trade concessions for 2000 products from the emerging country at the beginning of June. The US accuses India of prohibitively high tariffs and demands better market access for agricultural goods, mobile phones, spirits, motorcycles and more."

On the world map of trade wars, however, friction with India is merely a sideshow. America also views the world’s largest democracy through the lens of security policy. Delhi and Washington are united by concerns about China’s claims to power in the South Indian Ocean. Against this background, a volley of American punitive tariffs against India seems unlikely. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has just started a second five-year term, is therefore likely to weigh himself in safety.

The problem, however, lies in another place: The empirically substantiated thesis that open markets accelerate economic development has a difficult position in the Socialist Republic of India. Even under Modi. His reform zeal is mainly aimed at the bureaucratic madness that has for too long stifled any entrepreneurial spirit in the multi-ethnic state. Companies now receive building permits for buildings more quickly. They benefit from a better energy and transport infrastructure, and a more effective insolvency and bankruptcy law creates the conditions to liquidate seemingly dead companies with high debts more quickly.

The success of these efforts can be seen and measured in the relevant rankings. From an economic perspective, much has changed for the better in India in the first five Modi years. However, this does not apply to trade policy. Inspired by protecting internationally uncompetitive companies from foreign suppliers, the national conservative government even erected new barriers.

"In the West, Modi is attached to the nimbus of the energetic reformer, who is radically renewing his country economically. This impression is not least due to the fact that the charismatic prime minister knows all too well what vocabulary Western managers like. At its core, however, the ""India First"" advocate never moved away from a protectionist economic policy, which prevents Indian companies from being forced to get rid of anachronistic processes and thus become fit for global competition. Businessmen who survive thanks to the isolation of their industries are among the regular voters of Modi's nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and applaud this short-sighted policy."

According to a report, former French President Jacques Chirac is to be buried next week in Paris. The former head of state will be buried on Monday in the Montparnasse cemetery in the south of the French capital, the AFP news agency reported, citing the Chirac family. The burial will take place in a close family circle. A public funeral service was scheduled for Sunday in the Paris Invalides, according to media reports.

Carrying the competitor to the finish line: Dabo is the first secret hero of the World Championships in Athletics

The world leaders had already reached the finish line a long time ago when heartwarming scenes unfolded in the cooled down Khalifa International Stadium. Jonathan Busby from Aruba began to sway dangerously in the first run-up of the men over 5000 meters. He could barely keep on his feet with a good 300 meters to go, running in an unhealthy stooped posture when Braima Suncar Dabo from the West African country of Guinea-Bissau suddenly hooked him and dragged him supporting the last half of the stadium lap to the finish line. However, the forces were still enough for both of them to stop the running wristwatch after the finish. As if the scene had not been strange enough.

"""I just wanted to help him. Everyone in this situation would have done the same,"" Dabo said after the race in Mixed Zone, when he unexpectedly attracted the attention of the assembled journalists. He was shy at first, didn't want to talk about his feat at all. After all, he wanted to set his personal best and when he realized that this would be difficult, he just wanted to help a fellow sufferer. And in any case, he would only be proud to represent his country, which was invited by the world governing body for the World Championships. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't even have been allowed to start. ""That's why I'm proud to run here for my country,"" he said."

He did so emphatically that evening - and much more intensively than he probably would have thought. Because this feat will be remembered. Especially since Dabo even let his competitor Busby take the lead at the finish line and voluntarily took over the last place - by the way, a good five minutes after the Ethiopian Selemon Barega, who won this heat. Everything was of no use in the end, because Busby, who only finished with a lot of help, was disqualified by the World Athletics Federation in the end.

"Dabo, who lives in Portugal and studies there in Lisbon, competed to set a personal best time at the World Championships in Doha. According to official data, he succeeded with 18:10.87 minutes, but he himself was disappointed: ""I wanted to run 17:55 minutes. I've been under 18 minutes."" However, only in training, best times do not count."

In Egypt, security measures have been stepped up in the run-up to possible anti-government protests. An increased police presence was observed in central Cairo on Friday. Several subway stations remained closed and roads around central Tahrir Square were closed.

In recent days, the police had already stepped up their road controls and searched the mobile phones of pedestrians partly on messages and photos in connection with the protests. Hundreds had been arrested, according to two non-governmental organisations.

"Last weekend there were protests with hundreds of participants in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez and Mansura. They were directed against the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whom critics accuse of corruption and mismanagement. There had not been such an open protest against the political leadership in Egypt for years. The Spanish-exiled Egyptian builder and actor Mohammed Ali, who started the demonstrations with video messages on Facebook, has called for a ""million march"" in central places in the country this Friday. Ali calls for a ""people's revolution."" The man is not a ""good guy for most young Egyptians either, because he made millions as a subcontractor for the army, but his messages are arriving."

The number of arrests in connection with the protests continued to rise, according to two observer groups. The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF) counted more than 1,570 arrests as of Friday. The Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR) and the human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) spoke of more than 2,000 arrests. Initially, these figures could not be independently confirmed. The government also did not confirm or comment on the figures.

"Many people were ""arbitrarily arrested"" ""just because they were 'in the wrong place at the wrong time',"" said HRW, citing lawyers arrested.According to their lawyers, the allegations against those arrested range from ""spreading false information"" to membership in a ""terrorist association"".In Cairo, Alexandria and other cities, security forces in uniform, but also in civilian clothing, also arbitrarily questioned and searched passers-by, according to HRW."

HRW also criticised the censorship in the North African country. According to this, the government in Cairo is blocking websites and online services in order to prevent further protests against Sisi.

Online retailers: Mail order companies should be able to donate returns more easily

For online retailers, many returned parcels are lost goods. Around 20 million returns end up in the garbage. But there is an alternative.

The Treasury Department has shown online retailers like Amazon and Zalando a way to donate returned products instead of destroying them.

Although the companies could not be exempted from sales tax on donations in kind, the ministry explained in response to a question from the Green parliamentary group, on which the newspapers of the Funke media group reported on Friday. However, the dealers could set the market value of the unsellable returns so low that they would have to pay little or no sales tax.

Scientists at the University of Bamberg had determined that German citizens send back every sixth parcel when ordering on the Internet. Around four percent of the goods - around 20 million products - subsequently ended up in the garbage. According to the current legal situation, donating them would cost the companies additional money, because the tax authorities assess donations in kind as a turnover, which is then subject to sales tax.

Green Group leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt called on Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) to clarify with a decree that companies can evaluate non-saleable products accordingly and donate to non-profit organisations free of charge. Companies must be able to rely on not being penalised for donations. This applies not only to online retail, but also to other businesses from fashion stores to DIY stores.

Banksy art for auction: There has never been a better time to sell this painting

"The well-known work of street art star Banksy, ""Devolved Parliament"", is to be auctioned soon."

"For Branczik, Banksy's work underscores ""the regression of the world's oldest parliamentary democracy into the basic attitude of animals and tribes."" Starting Saturday, the painting is to be exhibited at Sotheby's in the British capital until it is to be auctioned on October 3. It is estimated at 1.5 to two million euros."

"The work was first exhibited in 2009 at the Museum of Bristol in the southwest of the UK, where Banksy lives. This year, the artist had exhibited the painting again - coinciding with the original Brexit date on 29 March. On this occasion, the work, which used to be called ""Question Time"", was renamed ""Devolved Parliament""."

Most recently, Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivered a tough exchange of blows with the opposition on Wednesday at the first session of the House of Commons following the lifting of a compulsory break imposed by Johnson by the Supreme Court. Johnson wants to carry out the Brexit, which has already been postponed twice, on 31 October without an agreement with the EU if necessary.

This is not the first time that Banksy, whose identity is still unknown, has intervened in the Brexit debate. In Dover, in the south-east of England, he painted a picture depicting a man breaking a star of the European flag with a chisel. Thousands of truck drivers and other visitors see the work every day as they enter the UK.

"According to his top adviser, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's fierce verbal attacks on Brexit opponents in parliament do not contribute to a climate of hatred. Compared to the election campaign before the Brexit referendum in 2016, the current controversy is a ""walk in the park,"" said Dominic Cummings at a book launch on Friday. ""We enjoy it. We will withdraw (from the EU) and we will win."""

"Johnson had harshly attacked Brexit opponents in Parliament in recent days, accusing them, among other things, of ""betraying"" the people. He dismissed accusations that he could put MPs in danger because they could be the target of death threats as ""humbug""."

Cummings said the only way to restore calm was for MPs to finally respect the British decision to leave the EU. It was not surprising that people were upset that Britain had still not left the EU three years after the referendum.

"In view of the charged mood, even the bishops of the Anglican Church called for restraint on Friday. ""We should speak to each other with respect"", they said in a statement. ""And we should also listen""."

Pakistani Prime Minister Khan calls for UN intervention in Kashmir

In his first appearance before the UN General Assembly, Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan once again called on the United Nations to intervene in the Kashmir conflict with an emotional appeal.

"Otherwise, another war between the nuclear powers Pakistan and India is likely, Khan said on Friday at the UN general debate in New York. ""If this goes badly, you hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst."" The United Nations has a responsibility for Kashmir. ""You should have prevented it."""

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since their independence from British colonial rule in 1947, two of them over the divided region of Kashmir. Both nuclear powers each control a part of Kashmir, another part belongs to China. At the beginning of August, India revoked the autonomy status of the Indian Kashmir region and thus abruptly increased tensions in relation to Pakistan.

The demonstrators in Cairo demand the overthrow of Egyptian President al-Sisi.

The government is responding to the current protests in Egypt with a heavy hand. It is shooting at the population with live ammunition, and more than 2,000 prisoners join the 60,000 political prisoners already imprisoned there. Protesting has never been without danger in Egypt. However, since General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi came to power in 2013, the state apparatus has been doing everything it can to avoid a scenario similar to that of the Arab Spring.

But one of the triggers for the protests in 2011 was the poor economic situation. Poverty, lack of prospects and the feeling of being suffocated by their own government drove millions onto the streets. And this is a problem that even the regime of el-Sisi does not get a grip on, no matter how hard it acts against opponents. The situation has even worsened.

Today, every third person in Egypt lives below the poverty line. Since 2016, the currency has lost more than half of its value, the inflation rate is ten percent. If you want to buy a bottle of water in the supermarket, you have to decide who to finance: Nestlé, Coca-Cola or the military. The latter is not only responsible for the repression but also the biggest economic actor. The military builds roads, houses, football stadiums, produces food and much more. This was already the case before el-Sisi. The Egyptian people have a lot of experience with authoritarian regimes, and the dilemma in the supermarket is also an old one. It always becomes critical when large parts of the population find it difficult to afford a bottle of water at all.

"TÜV inspections in the terminal: BER boss: No more ""showstoppers"" for capital airport"

For two months, it was checked whether the complex system network works in conjunction with BER fire protection. Operators are satisfied with the progress. However, the TÜV is not yet ready at BER.

After large-scale TÜV inspections in the terminal of the future capital airport, the operators have confirmed the planned opening in October next year. This is certain, said Supervisory Board Chairman Rainer Bretschneider after a meeting of the supervisory board.

"Airport CEO Engelbert Lütke Daldrup spoke of a successfully completed audit, but also said that there were still shortcomings to be worked through in the terminal. ""We have many detailed topics, but we do not have a real showstopper."" He assured that the schedule until commissioning still contained buffers."

However, there are indications that the time reserve may no longer be too large. The construction completion notice is now to be submitted to the building authority in the course of the first quarter of 2020, which was planned for this autumn at the beginning of the year.

"Hundreds of defects in power cables are still to be remedied; the TÜV wants to check these by February. ""In order to create the conditions for the start of flight operations, it is necessary to continue to work intensively on the processing of the defects,"" it said in a written statement."

Lütke Daldrup said that in many cases it is about missing evidence, less about new cables. There is also still no approval for all dowels on which the cable routes hang. The airport boss expects this to be available by the end of the year.

In addition, the fire protection at the crossing to the station under the terminal is not yet working satisfactorily. The problems had already led the project into another crisis three years ago. This time, it is about smoke aprons that shut down like a screen in a fire so that the smoke does not spread. They go down too far. 36 engines must therefore be replaced. Then, at the beginning of the year, there will be new experiments with hot gas smoke.

Problems with fire protection and other construction defects as well as planning errors have delayed the opening of the airport for years. It was originally scheduled to go into operation in 2011. Costs have risen from two billion euros since the start of construction in 2006 to around 6.5 billion euros for the opening next year.

Because passenger numbers in Berlin have increased significantly since then, those responsible are planning to expand the airport. This will be the focus of a special meeting of the Supervisory Board on 18 October, as Chairman Bretschneider announced.

The airport company is now looking for two new managing directors. Chief Financial Officer Heike Fölster will move to Deutsche Bahn at the end of the year, Head of Human Resources Manfred Bobke-von Camen will retire next year, as Bretschneider said. He thanked Fölster. She had put the airport finances on a firm footing.

He needed money for drugs - and blew up several vending machines in the city of Chemnitz! Now the perpetrator is finally in custody!

In the past two years, the number of blown up cigarette and parking ticket machines in Chemnitz and the region has risen sharply, causing millions in damage!

After two detonations at the end of May, the police seized a 33-year-old German man on Bürgerstraße and Further Straße in Chemnitz.

"Police spokesman Andrzej Rydzik: ""In the course of the investigation for causing explosive explosions in a crime unit with a particularly serious case of theft, which was conducted by the Chemnitz criminal police, not only this suspicion against the 33-year-old was confirmed."""

Confronted with the new evidence, the 33-year-old Chemnitzer now confessed to a total of eight acts.

"The police spokesman: ""He apparently used the loot to finance his addiction to narcotics.""The bomber blew up parking ticket machines on Bürgerstraße four times between 20 August 2018 and 31 May 2019 alone."

The vending machine bomber is now in custody. Police investigations against him are ongoing.

It is conceivable that he was also responsible for further automaton explosions in Chemnitz and neighbouring districts.

"The Lufthansa Group is reversing its strategy for Vienna Airport. In the midst of the price war with low-cost airlines such as Lauda, Wizz Air, EasyJet and Level, the Lufthansa subsidiary AUA is ""taking over the commercial management of all Eurowings flights from Vienna,"" a press spokesperson for Austrian Airlines confirmed to APA on Friday. ""AviationNetOnline"" had previously reported on this."

"The Vienna base of the Lufthansa low-cost airline Eurowings will thus be de facto dissolved. Of the current seven Eurowings aircraft, four will remain in Vienna. These will be taken over by AUA in a ""wetlease"" from January 2020, i.e. including Eurowings personnel. In the future, three Eurowings jets will be stationed in Salzburg, which will fly from Salzburg and Innsbruck as charter machines to holiday destinations. Routes from Vienna to Germany will be taken over by Eurowings Germany."

The Eurowings base in Vienna will be integrated into the AUA hub and network planning, the spokesman explained. Flight times are to be coordinated with connecting flights. The aim is, on the one hand, to strengthen the Vienna hub and, on the other, to expand decentralised traffic from the federal states.

"As AviationNetOnline writes, Eurowings in Vienna only serves as a ""production company"" for the Group's sister company AUA. For example, Barcelona and Rome will be served with an AUA flight number, but primarily with a Eurowings device. Although the on-board product is to be adapted to that of Austrian Airlines, the pilots and flight attendants are from Eurowings. According to the report, the Eurowings flights departing under the AUA flight number will no longer be handled in Terminal 1, but in the same way as the AUA in Terminal 3."

"A price war has broken out at Vienna Airport following the Niki bankruptcy. Ryanair subsidiary Laudamotion only announced on Thursday that it would increase its fleet in Vienna to 16 aircraft next summer. To this end, the Irish low-cost airline is sending four Ryanair aircraft including crews to Vienna, also in the so-called ""wetlease"", which the union criticised as a bypass to the collective agreement."

"Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary's challenge that Lauda will have overtaken the AUA in five years was countered by AUA CEO Andreas Otto on Friday: ""We will remain number one at the site in five, six or ten years."""

Beatrice, Eugenie, William and Harry: As children, the cousins were best friends. Now the last of the four is getting married. Beatrice is engaged!

Wonderful news from the British royals: In the Italian holidays at the beginning of the month, Edoardo Mapelli is said to have stopped Mozzi (34) for the hand of his girlfriend Princess Beatrice (31), the palace announced on Thursday.

"""We are extremely excited to announce our engagement. We are both so excited to start this adventure together and can't wait to actually be married,"" the couple, who according to British media reports have been dating since October 2018, said in the official announcement."

"And further: ""We share so many similar interests and values and we know that this will help us a lot in the coming years full of love and happiness""."

The official engagement photos were taken by her sister, Princess Eugenie (29) - and also published on her Instagram account.

The wedding is scheduled to take place in 2020. More information on the date, location and everything else will be announced by the palace in the coming months.

However, it is certain that the marriage of the ninth in line to the British throne and the real estate mogul will be as big a celebration as the wedding of Eugenie on 12 October 2018 to Jack Brooksbank (33).

Smoking, being overweight, eating an unhealthy diet - there are risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. But what really causes heart failure or a heart attack? Hamburg researchers now want to take a close look at the genetic make-up of 9000 healthy and sick people.

By analysing the genetic material of 9,000 people, Hamburg and Swiss scientists want to track down the causes of cardiovascular diseases in more detail.

The research project is the largest of its kind in German-speaking countries, the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) announced on Friday. The Kühne Foundation is funding the project with 12.5 million euros. From Switzerland, the High Mountain Clinic Davos, which is owned by the foundation, and the University Hospital Zurich are involved.

Overweight, smoking and an unhealthy diet are among the main influenceable risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. Genetic factors determine the risk. However, the interplay between genes and external influences is only insufficiently known, it was said. The scientists now want to compare the complete genetic make-up of 8000 healthy people with that of 1000 former patients of the University Heart and Vascular Centre at the UKE.

According to the hospital, possible disease-causing changes in DNA - so-called mutations - are currently known in more than 4,000 of the approximately 20,000 relevant human genes. About 200 are added every year.

According to the initiators, the aim of the five-year project is to develop new options for the prevention, detection and treatment of cardiac arrhythmias, heart failure and heart attacks. The data could also be used for research into other common diseases, says Stefan Blankenberg, head of the University Heart and Vascular Center. New insights into the interaction between heart and brain, heart and kidney as well as cancer are possible.

The chairman of the Kühne Foundation, Klaus-Michael Kühne (82), also stressed that there is a firm will to use the data for research into other diseases. So far, the foundation's clinic in Davos has primarily treated allergies. Now, a Center for Cardiovascular Precision Medicine is to be established on the medical campus there and a professorship for bioinformatics is to be created. To justify his commitment, the logistics entrepreneur, who lives in Switzerland, said that he had open-heart surgery in Hamburg three years ago and was very grateful.

"The biosamples of the healthy participants come from hamburgers, who are also taking part in the ""Hamburg City Health Study"". With 45,000 test subjects, according to the hospital, this is the largest local health study in the world. When encrypting the genome, strict attention is paid to the protection of the anonymised data. It is about one petabyte (1000 terabytes) of data, said Holger Moch from the University Hospital Zurich."

Today, according to UKE, the human genome can be decoded within 24 hours. The pure material costs for this would amount to 1,300 euros. The first gene sequencing worldwide, the results of which were published in 2001, still cost several hundred million euros. The study is scheduled to begin on 1 October, and all 9,000 samples are to be analyzed by the end of 2020. Initial results are expected the following year.

"In Nigeria, police have freed more than 300 tortured and abused boys from a Koranic school. According to information from local residents, security forces searched the school in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna and discovered the victims, some of whom were still minors, according to police spokesman Yakubu Sabo. ""The victims were abused. Some of them said they had been raped by their teachers,"" said Sabo."

"The boys were detained under the pretext of being taught and ""improved"" in the Koran. In fact, the charges were held by their teachers in the ""most degrading and inhuman conditions,"" Sabo said. About a hundred students, including children as young as nine, were chained in a small room."

According to the information, the Koran school had existed for about ten years. Residents had alerted the authorities to repeated irregularities in the facility. The parents were shocked when they were taught about the conditions in the Koran school, said Sabo. They had no idea of the suffering of their children. The operator and six employees were arrested, according to the police.

In the predominantly Muslim north of Nigeria, there are many private Koran schools. They replace the often inadequate state institutions. People in the region suffer from frequent attacks by armed gangs. According to the UN refugee agency, more than 40,000 people have fled across the border to the neighbouring state of Niger in the past ten months.

Chained and tortured: Nigerian police free 400 children from school

"Police have freed nearly 400 students from appalling conditions in a school in northern Nigeria. ""Many of them were chained and some had visible injuries that indicate torture,"" said police spokesman Yakubu Sabo in the city of Kaduna."

"On Thursday, after a tip-off, the children were discovered in an Islamic school.The conditions there ""were inhumane.""The officials arrested the headmaster and six teachers after the liberation operation."

The children, all boys, were held like slaves at their school and put on chains. Some were sexually abused. Television pictures showed emaciated and injured students in a recognizably poor state of health.

World footballer election: Further accusations after Messi and Klopp's freestyle

With a gala in Milan, the world football association Fifa honours the best player, the best player and the best coach of the year. For Lionel Messi, it is the sixth honour and thus a record.

After Nicaragua's captain declared that he had never voted in the world footballer election, accusations come to Fifa from other countries. Egypt was not evaluated at all - with a curious justification.

Many things at Fifa have proved to be disreputable in recent years: the awarding of the World Cup, the dubious plans of its president Gianni Infantino, the general behaviour of various corrupt officials. However, the Fifa world footballer election has so far not been suspected of being unclean - apart from the fact that the voting national coaches and national team captains of the member associations often vote on the basis of sympathy rather than an objective assessment.

But after Nicaragua's captain had already complained that he had not voted at all, further inconsistencies are now coming to light: Egypt complains that the votes of national coach Hossam El-Badry and captain Mohamed Salah have not been taken into account. Indeed, they do not appear in the official and publicly visible voting overview.

"FIFA apologises to the extent that ""the signatures on the election forms were submitted in capital letters and therefore not valid."" The Egyptian FA has been contacted several times to clarify the situation - without an answer."

There is also an outcry from Sudan regarding the election. While the situation in the case of Egypt is understandable, the Sudanese federation states that coach Zdravko Lugarisic did not vote as it was finally judged: with Lionel Messi in first place, Virgil van Dijk in second and Sadio Mané in third. According to Fifa, however, the vote was received in the same way, with signatures and official stamp of the Sudanese federation.

"Nicaragua's captain Juan Barrera had also made accusations: ""Did not vote for the #TheBest2019 Awards. All information about my vote is wrong, thank you,"" he wrote. In his case, it was suspected that the Nicaraguan Football Federation simply voted on his behalf."

"The news came from the federation on Friday: Yes, but of course there was no intention. The completed election documents were ""erroneously"" provided with the name and signature of Juan Barrera, the captain of the Nicaraguan selection, according to a statement from the federation. However, the second captain, Manuel Rosas, had actually been elected. ""We take responsibility for the administrative error,"" said the statement. However, both Rosas and team coach Henry Duarte had voted for Messi, ""just as it is in the official list of FIFA""."

Fifa is now having the other cases examined in an investigation, but stresses that the election process was externally supervised by the consulting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers. For the time being, Lionel Messi remains the undisputed winner of the world footballer election - and Jürgen Klopp World Coach of the Year.

Ukraine affair: High-ranking Republicans speak out in favour of official investigation

"Two senior Republicans have spoken out openly in favour of an official investigation into the US president and party friend Donald Trump. ""I think the investigation is important,"" said the Republican governor of the US state of Vermont, Phil Scott. ""Where this leads from here is determined by the facts that are established."" He wants to know more about the whistleblower affair before any action is taken. Impeachment proceedings can lead to the removal of the president."

"Scott said he was not surprised by the revelations, which showed that Trump had repeatedly called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a phone call to investigate the activities of Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden in Ukraine. According to Scott, Trump had been watching Biden ""for years."""

The Republicans have so far held back from criticizing Trump over the whistleblower affair, and few have expressed unease about it. Scott's statements are now a first sign of this in Trump's party. The moderate governor of Virginia has already spoken out several times against Trump's policies, such as the relaxation of environmental regulations and the tightening of immigration regulations.

As another ranking Republican, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker also spoke in favor of the inquiry. “It’s a deeply disturbing situation,” Baker said. “The right course of action and the responsibility for Congress now is to investigate and get to the bottom of it.”

"Scott and Baker, as governors of US states, have no formal say in the case against Trump, which will be decided in Congress. Their statements are therefore above all symbolically important. Nevertheless, the first Republican senators have also been critical of the situation. Mitt Romney, for example, who represents the state of Utah in the second chamber of parliament, said that the case was ""extremely disturbing, deeply disturbing."" US media also report that the first cracks are appearing internally among the Republicans."

The affair could lead to the opening of impeachment proceedings against Trump, the Democrats in the House of Representatives have announced an investigation, accusing him of abuse of power for the purpose of foreign influence for his own political gain.

There is no exact timetable for the impeachment process. With their majority in the House of Representatives, the Democrats could push for a so-called impeachment. However, the decision on an actual removal from office would be made in the Senate, where Trump’s Republicans have a majority. Therefore, the prospects for the success of such a process are slim. So far, no US president has been removed from office through an impeachment process.

Three men have been arrested in Sicily and allegedly raped and murdered in Libyan refugee camps.

"The German captain Carola Rackete (31) was arrested in June after sailing illegally to the port of Lampedusa with the rescue ship ""Sea Watch 3"" and 53 Libyan refugees on board. After fierce protests and international criticism - including from Austria's Federal President Alexander van der Bellen - her house arrest was lifted after a few days by an Italian judge."

"New serious allegations are now being made against Rackete. For example, three men accused of torture in Libyan refugee camps may have arrived in Italy with the ""Sea-Watch 3"". The suspects were caught in a reception camp in Messina (Sicily) after migrants recognized their tormentors in Italy. ""We can't rule this out, but we don't have any reliable information ourselves,"" ""Sea Watch"" spokesman Ruben Neugebauer told the German Press Agency."

"The police said in mid-September that the suspects had raped, tortured and even murdered in the North African country. They were Mohammed C. (27) from Guinea, and the two Egyptians Hameda A. (26) and Mahmoud A (24). ""The migrants were systematically harassed and subjected to atrocities - through repeated and constant physical violence,"" the statement said at the time."

"NGOs and aid organizations now point out that they cannot know exactly who is coming on the ships. ""We cannot scan who the people are. They come without passports,"" said Neugebauer. Torture is one of the main reasons why people are fleeing Libya. It is therefore quite likely that there are also perpetrators on the ships. ""It is therefore very important that this is investigated."""

Italy's right-wing former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini immediately demanded an apology from Rackete, who is still under investigation in Italy for aiding illegal immigration.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has given his electric car company a strong boost on the stock market with the prospect of new record numbers.

"""We have the opportunity to reach our first quarter with 100,000 deliveries,"" Musk wrote in an email to Tesla employees published by the industry blog ""Electrek""."

The new fiscal year will begin in the US on 1 October without a proper budget. The Senate followed the House of Representatives on Thursday and approved transitional funding until 21 November.

Although the American Congress and President Donald Trump agreed in August to increase the spending caps for the fiscal years 2020 and 2021, the United States is once again without spending plans ahead of the new fiscal year, which begins on October 1. The Senate followed the House of Representatives on Thursday and passed a Continuing Resolution (CR) until November 21. Without such a resolution, there would have been a shutdown at midnight on Monday, a partial closure of the federal administration. President Trump has yet to put the decision into effect.

For the time being, the federal administration is now being funded at the level and in accordance with the priorities of the spending plans for the 2019 fiscal year, which ends on Monday. This is because Congress has not been able to agree in time on the 12 spending bills that allocate funds to the various departments and agencies. Therefore, for the time being, the federal administration cannot benefit from the spending framework, which has been expanded from $1.3 trillion to $1.4 trillion for the new fiscal year.

The Democrats have completed ten of the twelve bills in the House of Representatives, where they have a majority. However, the spending bills reflect the priorities of the Democrats, who have little chance in the Republican-dominated Senate. Conversely, the Senate has also more or less prepared ten of the twelve spending plans that are unlikely to command a majority.

The minds differ mainly on the issue of resource allocation for domestic security and border security. In the Senate, the Republicans are apparently trying to force $12 billion for the construction of the wall, one of President Trump's big priorities. The Democrats are interfering with the wall construction plans and their funding, which is actually intended for other military buildings and projects. The dispute over the construction of the wall had already escalated in December 2018 and led to a 35-day shutdown.

It is currently unclear how the parties intend to come closer on this issue. More likely than an agreement on all twelve spending bills in the next seven weeks is an extension of the transitional funding beyond 21 November. At the same time, a shutdown cannot be ruled out.

Against the background of the continuing inability of Congress to agree on the twelve spending bills in time and the associated risk of a shutdown, ideas for automating the process are gaining popularity. Template p. 1877 to avoid shutdowns would automatically continue the funding of the federal administration at the previous year's level, prevent the travel of parliamentarians and withhold their wages until the new annual spending plans were in place.

In France, artificial insemination will also be open to single women and lesbians in the future: the Paris National Assembly voted by a large majority in favour of a government bill according to which all women can benefit from in vitro fertilisation. Thus, the demand for anonymous sperm donations is likely to increase significantly.

"The proposal still requires the approval of the Senate. In the three-day emotional debate, critics on the right had warned that numerous ""children without a father"" could grow up in the future. The French Bishops' Conference is also against the innovation."

"The new regulation is the core component of a bioethics law, which Health Minister Agnès Buzyn defended as an ""opportunity"" for society. It depicts the modern family, in which there are children with only one parent or with homosexual parents. According to her, the costs of artificial insemination for all women should be covered by social insurance."

"By a narrow majority, however, the National Assembly rejected an amendment to give widows access to their dead husband's sperm for artificial insemination. Artificial insemination ""post-mortem"" is permitted in Belgium, Spain and Great Britain. In Germany, there have been cases in the past in which women sued in vain for the release of a deceased's sperm. Opponents of the initiative in Paris argued that a child conceived in this way would then bear a ""particularly difficult fate""."

"Numerous MPs of the ruling party La République en Marche (The Republic on the Move, LREM) of President Emmanuel Macron and members of the opposition had spoken out in favour of artificial insemination with the sperm of the deceased partner. They stressed that a ""double grief"" would be imposed on a widow if her wish to have children remained unfulfilled by the death of her husband."

The initiators of the now failed amendment consider it unfair that a widow can in future be fertilised with the sperm of an unknown person, but not with the sperm of her own partner.

So far, artificial insemination in France is only allowed to heterosexual couples who cannot produce children. They must be married or live together for at least two years. Buzyn had already announced in the summer that surrogacy would remain prohibited.

In Germany, artificial insemination is theoretically open to all women - but it is often difficult for single or lesbian couples.

Compensation for the climate: Calls for a flight levy for universities are growing louder

There is a lot of flying at the universities, which is why the country also wants to have a climate tax paid there in the future. The rectors say they have no money for it. But now they are also coming under internal pressure.

Universities should also limit themselves to flying. Photo: dpa/Julian Stratenschulte

"The discussion on a climate levy on flights from universities and universities, which was postponed before the summer break, is gaining momentum again. After the State Rectors' Conference had reacted skeptically to a corresponding initiative from the green-black coalition, the plans are now receiving support from the universities. In a joint statement, the doctoral students from six Baden-Württemberg universities and an educational university plead for compensation for official flights. This is ""urgently necessary"" as a first step. At the same time, there must be a broad debate on the avoidability of flights, according to their statement. Meanwhile, the cabinet decision, which was originally planned in July, is still on hold because the CDU has still not approved the proposal of the Greens."

According to the FSB secret service, those arrested had been fishing illegally in Russian waters. Ten days earlier, 161 fishermen from North Korea had already been arrested. At that time, there was an exchange of fire between the border guards and the boat crew. Three Russians and one North Korean were injured, and the fisherman later succumbed to his serious injuries.

Communist North Korea is suffering from a chronic food shortage. Accordingly, the North Korean fishermen were in Russian territorial waters, where the Russian Coast Guard says it is conducting patrols to protect its marine biological resources.

During the renewed inspections, 30,000 squid were discovered on the boats and seized. In addition, according to the information, three fishing boats and two motor boats were seized and taken to Nakhodka and Posjet near Vladivostok.

Even after complaints from local entrepreneurs, Russia's fisheries authority had not issued any fishing licenses to the North Koreans this year. According to the media, thousands of fishermen from North Korea have already been temporarily arrested there this year.

The head of the Association of Russian Fishing Companies in the Far Eastern region of Primorye, Georgi Martynov, also recently lamented the high ecological damage caused by the North Korean fishermen. They fished with close-knit synthetic nets banned in Russia. With these, even small creatures would be taken out of the sea. In addition, the nets would simply be disposed of in the sea, where they would take 200 years to decompose.

"The ""most generous nation in history"": Donald Trump, here at a meeting with elected police officials at the White House."

The richest country in the world is closing itself off from those seeking protection: as confirmed by the State Department in Washington, the upper limit for the legal influx of refugees will be further lowered. In the future, threatened believers and Iraqis in particular will be granted asylum.

The US government wants to once again lower the already historically low limit for the admission of new refugees. In the 2020 marketing year, which runs in the United States from October 2019 to September 2020, a maximum of 18,000 people are to be allowed into the country, as stated by the US State Department. In the now almost expired marketing year, the limit is still at 30,000 people.

In recent years, President Donald Trump’s administration has drastically reduced the number of people seeking protection from all over the world. Under Barack Obama’s previous administration, far higher admission limits had applied.

The targeted cap of 18,000 refugees would be the lowest since the US refugee program was introduced in 1980. Nevertheless, the State Department described the US as the “most merciful and generous nation in history,” a phrase strongly reminiscent of the incumbent US president’s use of language.

"A ""responsible approach"" to refugees is aimed at enabling refugees to return to their home countries in order to help with reconstruction, Trump explained. He receives a lot of support from supporters for his tough stance on migration policy, but there is also massive criticism."

A major point of contention is the border with Mexico, which Trump wants to seal off. Trump had declared a national emergency in order to finance the construction of a border wall. It is unclear whether there is a temporal connection between the current measure and the current domestic political developments in the US capital. Trump is currently under pressure over the Zelensky affair and a possible threat of impeachment.

According to the Foreign Office, the US government wants to focus in the future on taking in two groups of refugees: people who are being persecuted for their faith - and Iraqis who have helped the US military in the country and are thus in danger, according to the statement by the State Department. Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, on the other hand, are to take in a maximum of 1500 refugees.

"The US wants to get people from this ""northern triangle"" of Central America in particular to apply for asylum in other countries. Against this background, the United States has only concluded migration agreements with Guatemala and now also with El Salvador and Honduras in order to curb immigration at the US southern border with Mexico."

"At the request of the Argentine judiciary, a female orangutan has been transferred from the former Buenos Aires Zoo to a reception centre for great apes in the USA. ""Sandra"", who was born in the Rostock Zoo in 1986, was granted the rights of a ""non-human person"", so her release was mandatory. The animal was brought to Dallas by direct flight on Thursday evening - not as a passenger, but in the cargo hold, as lawyer Andrés Gil Domínguez explained."

"Since the 53-kilogram great ape is unable to adapt to life in the wild, she is to live in the outdoor enclosure of the Center for Great Apes in Florida in the future. 21 other orangutans and 31 chimpanzees are already housed there, among them ""Bubbles"", the former pet of pop star Michael Jackson. Before moving to Florida, however, ""Sandra"" still has to go through a 40-day quarantine at the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita in the US state of Kansas."

"After her birth in Rostock, ""Sandra"" spent several years in the former Ruhr Zoo in Gelsenkirchen before being transferred to Buenos Aires in 1995. The process for ""Sandra's"" fundamental rights, initiated by animal rights activists in 2014, has contributed to the transformation of the Buenos Aires Zoo into an eco-park. A research and education centre for the conservation of biodiversity is to be established there by 2023."

The extreme climber Dani Arnold has succeeded in a new hussar ride on the almost 3000-metre-high Große Zinne in the Italian Alps.

Without a net, double floor or other aids, the Swiss conquered the 550-metre-high north face of the Große Zinne in a new record time.

Dressed in jeans, T-shirt and only supported by absolute dizziness, Arnold needed 46 minutes and 30 seconds for the ascent. He beat the old record by almost 19 minutes.

Arnold is now the record holder in free solo speed on four of the six most important European north faces.

"The US sporting goods manufacturer Nike has posted a significant increase in profits despite the trade conflict with China. Net profit in the past quarter rose to 1.4 billion dollars (just under 1.3 billion euros), which is 25 percent more than in the same period of the previous year, the Group announced on Tuesday. This is mainly due to the new marketing strategy ""Nike DIRECT"", with which the Adidas competitor directly addresses its customers online."

Sales rose to 10.7 billion dollars in the three-month period to the end of August. Nike sales grew most strongly with an increase of 22 percent in China. As a result, the group from Beaverton in the US state of Oregon also benefited in the People’s Republic from its approach of directly targeting consumers via the Internet or smartphone apps.

"Chief Financial Officer Andy Campion announced that Nike will continue to drive the ""digital transformation"" of the sporting goods manufacturer with strategic investments and thus expand its competitive advantage. Investors reacted happily to the quarterly results - the shares of the sporting goods manufacturer rose by more than five percent."

"Because of racist comments about professional footballer Juan Jesus from AS Rome, the club from the Italian capital has imposed a lifelong stadium ban on a fan. The defender Jesus, originally from Brazil, had been verbally abused by the fan on Instagram. Jesus then published the private messages and called on his club to take action. ""@officialasroma You already know what to do with such a fan. #NoToRacism. Proud to be who I am,"" wrote the 28-year-old, who has been playing for AS Roma since 2016."

The club reacted late on Thursday. It had reported the fan's account to Instagram and the police. In addition, the Roma supporter was never allowed to attend a game of the club again, the club wrote on Twitter.

"Racism is a problem in Italian football. Italian fans regularly chant racist abuse against black players of rival teams. ""We cannot have racism in society or in sport. In Italy the situation has not improved, and this is very serious. You have to identify those responsible and throw them out of the stadiums,"" Fifa president Gianni Infantino had said at the weekend. The reason for the statement were racist chants at the first league match between Atalanta and AC Florence last Sunday."

But there had also been recent discussions about the supporters of Juventus. The Italian authorities have now imposed stadium bans on 38 rioting fans of record champions Juventus. Four of them will no longer be allowed to enter the stadium for a period of ten years, according to the police. Accordingly, the rest are subject to bans of four to seven years.

The fans are in connection with ongoing investigations against twelve leaders of ultra-fan groups in the vicinity of Juventus. The twelve are accused of, among other things, serious extortion, money laundering and private violence. The club launched the investigation with a complaint last year.

"According to Italian media reports, the ultra-leaders are said to be behind the illegal trade in tickets. They have ""militarily controlled"" the ticket trade for the fan curve and are said to have blackmailed Juventus employees in order to obtain cheaper tickets."

Millennials are narcissistic, Generation Z is political - entire vintages are given catchy names. If you take a closer look, the awards are full of contradictions. So how well do these labels describe the respective attitude to life of young people?

"""The crabs are coming!"" With this call, crab fishing officially started at Gucheng Lake in Gaochun on September 21st, which also heralded the opening event of the 19th China Gaochun Gucheng Lake Crab Festival, as announced by the Public Relations Department of the Nanjing-Gaochun District Committee."

"Gaochun, which forms the southern foothills of Nanjing in the province of Jiangsu, is one of the national environmental zones. The city is the first international ""Slow City"" in China and is also the Chinese seat of the international ""Slow City"" movement. The city has ideal ecological conditions with a mixture of ""30 percent mountains, 20 percent water areas and 50 percent fields"". The great natural environment of Gaochun offers its inhabitants all the conditions to become rich."

The people of Gaochun have already started crab farming in the early 1990s. Over time, the crab industry has developed into a formative industry, which provided high incomes and became an important part of the economic development of Gaochun. In recent years, Gaochun has been actively engaged in a large-scale, ecological and scientific development of crab breeding as well as a technology-supported crab breeding. And the city has taken care of the promotion of more efficiency in agriculture and the income of the farmers.

"In recent years, Gaochun has advanced a reform for the ""distribution of power, optimization of administration and government services"" and has carefully built up the service network for ""permits under one roof, a team for law enforcement, a network for services, a platform for lending"" in order to comprehensively optimize the environment for permits, for services and for development."

"Gaochun takes full advantage of the local advantages through the connection to southern Jiangsu and southern Anhui and uses the development zone and its position as an international ""Slow City"" as a flagship, in order to locate here intelligent high-end production companies, companies for biomedical and medical technology, for energy storage and environmental protection, from the cultural and health industry as well as companies for ecological agriculture, which are leaders in the ""3+2"" area. At the same time, Gaochun has promoted the development of a national tourism zone covering all areas and tourist resorts of national importance. It has integrated the ecological and cultural resources of the landscape of Gaochun, comprehensively improved the condition of the buildings for civic services and public services, vigorously developed the areas of ""Tourism +"" and ""+ Tourism"" and promoted the development of cultural tourism at a high quality level. It is worth looking forward to the future of Gaochun."

Conflict between Iran and the US: Rouhani speaks of an end to sanctions - Trump disagrees

After his return from the UN General Assembly, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani spoke of an alleged US offer to lift sanctions. The United States had promised an end to all sanctions in exchange for talks with the Tehran leadership, Ruhani said on his official website.

"However, US President Donald Trump contradicted his Iranian counterpart via Twitter: ""Iran wanted me to lift the sanctions imposed on it so that there would be a meeting. I said, of course, no."""

"Ruhani describes the events as follows: German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron were present in New York and pressed for a meeting to take place. ""And America says I am lifting the sanctions,"" Ruhani added. The nature of the punitive measures that should be ended has been up for debate. ""And they have clearly said that we are lifting all sanctions."""

"However, this advance was not made in an acceptable way, Ruhani criticized. In view of the current punitive measures and ""the poisoned atmosphere of maximum pressure"", no one could predict the outcome of negotiations."

At the beginning of the week, Chancellor Angela Merkel met with Ruhani in New York. The background was the hope of the Europeans to save the nuclear agreement with Iran negotiated with Russia and China, which is intended to prevent the Islamic Republic from developing nuclear weapons. French President Emmanuel Macron, like Merkel, had expressed hope on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly that Ruhani would meet with US President Donald Trump.

After western Turkey was shaken by two earthquakes within a very short time, the fear of a catastrophe is growing. 34 people were injured in the earthquake on Tuesday. There have been almost 200 aftershocks since the quake the day before, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said on Friday.

14 schools in Istanbul were closed for safety reasons. Hundreds of buildings were damaged. On Thursday, the 5.8-magnitude earthquake shook the Marmara region off Istanbul and caused panic in the metropolis of millions. Now, the government wants to set up a commission to better prepare the country for earthquakes in the future, Oktay announced.

In the past 20 years, Turkey has not been sufficiently prepared for quakes, said Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu. In the city itself, the latent danger is repeatedly ignored. Every year, poorly built residential buildings collapse - among other things, worn down by the many smaller earthquakes that regularly shake Istanbul.

Urban planners such as the well-known architect Mücella Yapici have been warning for years that large open areas, which were registered in the center as places of refuge, have long since been built up. Only on the 20th anniversary of the Gölcük quake in August, the Chamber of Civil Engineers of Istanbul had warned that an estimated one million buildings in Istanbul were not earthquake-proof.

The epicentre of Thursday’s quake was in the Sea of Marmara in front of the district of Silivri and at a depth of around seven kilometres, according to the civil protection agency Afad. A smaller aftershock caused even greater panic on the streets a few minutes later.

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu said on Twitter that no injuries or damage were initially reported. The state broadcaster TRT showed people running out of the houses in panic. Students were taken out of the buildings in the Silivri district for security reasons. Some students cried, as could be seen in pictures.

Istanbul is considered to be particularly vulnerable to earthquakes. Under the Sea of Marmara lies a section of the so-called North Anatolian Disturbance, which marks the border between the Eurasian and Anatolian plates. Turkey is repeatedly shaken by earthquakes. One of the deadliest was the quake in 1999 near Istanbul. At that time, more than 17,000 people were killed.

Researchers fear that an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.1 to 7.4 could be imminent. However, it is unclear when the earthquake will occur. Thursday's earthquake once again hit the west of the country and Istanbul.

Companies draw up emergency plans, private individuals have so-called go-bags packed with everything they need standing next to front doors, and schools teach children how to behave when the earth wobbles. It is unclear when the next big quake will come.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on his return from New York that eight people had been injured and that some buildings had suffered minor damage. Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu followed the developments of the Istanbul Disaster Coordination Center (Akom), according to which two minarets of mosques collapsed in the districts of Avcilar and Sariyer.

On social networks, many users report panic. Buildings wobbled. Schools and hospitals were evacuated. Telephone lines were cut. It was more violent than on Tuesday, writes one user. The head of the Turkish Red Crescent, Kerem Klinik, warned via Twitter of aftershocks. He called on people to stay away from buildings that had suffered visible damage.

The time of the quake is officially given as 1:59 p.m. (local time). Just a few minutes after the first quake, there was an aftershock with a magnitude of 4.0 on the Richter scale, according to CNN Turkey.

Only on Tuesday, an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.6 shook the Turkish Marmara region - it was felt as far as Istanbul. Its epicenter was also located in the Sea of Marmara west of the metropolis of millions, the civil protection agency Afad announced on Tuesday.

It was not the only earthquake that made headlines this Tuesday: Pakistan was also hit by a severe earthquake.

Researchers believe that sooner or later there could be a catastrophic earthquake in Istanbul - the tension between the tectonic plates is extremely high. Scientists believe that it will eventually discharge - and cause massive damage.

"Earthquake researcher Sükrü Ersoy reckons that the earthquake is now an advance warning. This has made it more likely, he told CNN Türk. ""These could be the signs of a major earthquake,"" Ersoy told the station. ""Sooner or later the big quake will also come."""

There had already been an incident a few weeks ago - the quake also caused great concern in Istanbul. In addition, there had been a violent earthquake in Albania only a few days ago - there were 68 injured. The earth also shook at Lake Constance this year.

"Two explosive documents provide new fuel in the Ukraine affair about the possible abuse of power by US President Donald Trump. On the way to a possible impeachment, the US Democrats see themselves strengthened: The complaint filed by an anonymous whistleblower about Trump and his controversial phone call with the Ukrainian president hold important clues for investigations against the president. Trump himself once again sees himself as the victim of a ""witch hunt"". He also doubted the credibility of the whistleblower."

USA: United Airlines passenger locked in toilet - plane diverted

Because a female passenger was locked in the board toilet, a United Airlines flight was diverted. The toilet door was blocked during flight 1554 from Washington to San Francisco, the airline said, according to US media.

During an unscheduled stopover on Wednesday evening (local time) in Denver, the woman was finally freed from the cramped cabin. She had been locked inside for about an hour, US media wrote, citing other passengers. The passengers had to change planes for the onward flight to San Francisco.

"In a video distributed on the Internet, which according to US media is said to be from Flight 1554, several people can be seen trying to free the woman. ""We're working on opening the door at the moment, ma'am. We'll get you out soon, okay?"" a man says in it. The airline has apologized to all passengers. It was initially open whether the woman will receive compensation."

The Cockroach: Inspired by Kafka: Ian McEwan writes Brexit novel

How does a writer like Ian McEwan deal with the whole Brexit chaos? He writes a book about it - and his protagonist is unmistakable.

"Inspired by Franz Kafka's famous story ""The Transformation"", the successful British author Ian McEwan (71) has written a book about the Brexit chaos in Britain."

"The novel ""The Cockroach"" (original: ""The Cockroach"") will be published in German on 27 November, Diogenes Verlag (Zurich) announced. It is about the transformation of a man named ""Jim Sams"", who was ignored or hated in his former life, but is now suddenly the most powerful man in Britain. He sees it as his mission to put the will of the people into action and is determined to let nothing and no one stop him."

"McEwan was quoted as saying: ""When parliament is closed so that the government cannot be challenged at a critical moment, when ministers shamelessly lie as the Soviet leaders once did, when Brexiteers in high positions virtually plead for the catastrophe of a no-deal - then a writer has to ask himself what he can do. There is only one answer to that: write."" It was only in the spring that McEwan published the novel ""Machines Like Me"" about artificial intelligence."

"Kafka's story, first published in 1915, is about Gregor Samsa, who wakes up one morning and sees himself ""transformed into a tremendous vermin"", is gradually excluded from family and society and finally perishes. ""Ian McEwan bows to Kafka to describe a world that is upside down,"" said the Diogenes publishing house."

11,200 wagons in Austria and Hungary will be fitted with whisper brakes to reduce noise pollution from freight trains. In addition, sections of the rail connections between Graz and Györ and Wiener Neustadt and Sopron will be modernised and electrified.

"According to the EU authority, this should make travel more comfortable and reduce CO2 emissions.The funds come from the EU infrastructure pot ""Connecting Europe Facility""."

"One day after filing for insolvency, the German tour operator Thomas Cook cancelled all trips up to and including 31 October 2019. Travel could ""not be started due to insolvency reasons"", the company announced on Thursday evening."

This also affects bookings of the brands Thomas Cook Signature, Thomas Cook Signature Finest Selection, Neckermann Reisen, ÖGER TOURS, Bucher Reisen and Air Marin, which have already been paid or fully paid for. The company left the situation regarding trips starting from 1 November 2019 open. It was said that the further procedure would be examined in consultation with the insolvency insurance.

Thomas Cook in Germany was caught in the maelstrom of the bankruptcy of the British parent company and filed for insolvency on Wednesday. The company, which includes Neckermann Reisen, Öger Tours and Bucher Reisen, employs around 2000 people in Germany.

As of this Friday, however, hotels abroad that are currently still hosting Thomas Cook holidaymakers will receive money from Zurich Insurance. According to Zurich, payments to the hotels are subject to the condition that holidaymakers will no longer be asked to make extra payments.

"Based on the booking information and without presenting separate invoices, the hotels in the holiday resorts are now to receive 50 percent of the outstanding payments, according to a Zurich spokesman for the German Press Agency. ""This applies immediately and provided that Thomas Cook travellers are not asked or otherwise forced to pay individual hotel bills by these hotels from now on,"" said spokesman Bernd Engelien."

The insurance company responded to reports from hotel guests who, according to their own statements, had been forced to pay for their own accommodation on site. Some therefore had to put more than 1000 euros on the table. The German Travel Association (DRV) and the Federal Association of Consumer Centres had strongly criticised this.

How many hotels are affected will be agreed with the insolvent travel provider on Friday, said the insurance spokesman. According to data on Thursday, 70,000 Thomas Cook package holidaymakers were still travelling from Germany. Zurich Germany has secured holidays and return travel for Thomas Cook customers.

Insolvency administrators want to try to continue the three Thomas Cook companies in Germany and find a solution for the future.

However, the now announced payments to hotels by Zurich Insurance will only help travellers who are currently still on the road. Things are looking bad for Thomas Cook customers who still want to go on holiday. Late on Thursday evening, the company announced that all trips up to and including 31 October would be cancelled. This also applies to bookings that have already been paid for.

The company left the situation with regard to trips starting on 1 November 2019 open. It was said that the further procedure would be examined in coordination with the insolvency insurance. In principle, Versicherung Zurich is also responsible for these cases. The sale of new trips has been stopped. dpa

The company refers to the insurer Zurich, which is represented by the company Kaera. Customers could find out about the possibilities of refunding the travel price on the Kaera website and assert their claims via a web form.

For a long time, Prince Harry has continued the commitment of Lady Diana. In Africa, he now walks directly in the footsteps of his mother.

Wearing a blue splinter protective vest, the British Prince Harry has detonated and destroyed an explosive mine in Angola.

Near a camp of the British Halo Trust near the village of Dirico, he produced the ignition circuit in front of running TV cameras on Friday morning. At a safe distance, the explosive device exploded in the savannah landscape without causing damage. Although the Halo Trust alone has destroyed more than 100,000 relics of the decades-long bloody conflict in the African country, there are still more than 1000 minefields that threaten the population.

On the fifth day of his trip to Africa, Harry then wanted to follow in the footsteps of his mother Diana (1961-1997) in the city of Huambo. With the same blastmaster who once accompanied his mother, he wanted to travel the path she was taking at the time. The pictures of Princess Diana walking through a cleared minefield in 1997 had gone around the world. She, too, had demonstrated support for the Halo Trust.

Harry (35) and his wife Meghan (38) have been on a ten-day trip to Africa since Monday, which began in the South African tourist metropolis of Cape Town.

Faltering Brexit negotiations: The threat of a no-deal remains acute

Actually, Prime Minister Boris Johnson had clearly committed himself: with him there will certainly not be a third postponement of the Brexit negotiations. But what statements are already everlasting for the polarizing British. The recent ruling of the Supreme Court in Great Britain is hovering over his blond head like a sword of Damocles. His suspension of Parliament, in order to be able to stubbornly pursue his Brexit course until the exit date, was annulled at the beginning of this week. And a law passed by Parliament obliges Johnson to effect an extension of the bilateral talks until October 31 in the event of failed negotiations with the EU. However, Johnson has categorically ruled that out.

But the pressure does not seem to be noticeably lost on Johnson either. Meanwhile, he hinted during a visit to a hospital that, in the event of no agreement, he would support an extension of the negotiations until the end of October:

At the same time, however, we are confident that we will leave the EU by 31 October.

And preferably with a deal. I am cautiously optimistic that this will work out.

And time is gradually running out for the Brexit negotiators in Brussels. The EU and the British negotiators still have around six weeks to prevent Britain from leaving the European Union without an agreement. However, the recent talks have again failed to achieve a breakthrough. An agreement by the end of October currently seems rather difficult to imagine. If the British Prime Minister does not break the law, a new postponement of the exit date is in force. However, the opposition does not trust the words of the Prime Minister. It fears that in the event of a no-deal Johnson could somehow push through Brexit.

"The number of deaths in connection with the use of e-cigarettes in the USA has risen to twelve. In addition, there are now 805 confirmed and probable injuries in this connection, according to the US health authority CDC. According to a study in the ""New England Journal of Medicine"", there have already been more than 900 sufferers, around 500 of them confirmed. The cause of the lung damage is still completely unclear. In Europe, no similar increase in lung damage is known so far. The complaints seem to be limited to users in the USA."

"The videos of Mohammed Ali have been shared millions of times in online networks. The building contractor and actor, who lives in Spain, calls for a ""people's revolution"". For this Friday, he has called for further protests against President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and the Egyptian military, which critics accuse of corruption and mismanagement. Ali is hoping for mass rallies with one million participants in central squares of the country."

In any case, the security authorities are alarmed. An increased police presence could already be observed in the center of Cairo. Several subway stations remained closed, streets around the central Tahrir Square were closed. In recent days, the police had already strengthened their road controls and searched the mobile phones of pedestrians partly on messages and photos in connection with the protests.

On September 20, demonstrators also gathered around Tahrir Square.

"Last weekend, protests with hundreds of participants took place in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez and Mansura. There had not been such an open protest in Egypt for years. Accordingly, the security forces reacted harshly. According to the human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW), almost 2,000 people have been arrested since last week. Many of them were arbitrarily arrested simply because they were ""in the wrong place at the wrong time,"" HRW said, citing lawyers."

The organization also criticized the censorship in the North African country. Accordingly, the government in Cairo is blocking websites and online services to prevent further protests against al-Sisi. The general has ruled the country since 2013 after overthrowing the democratically elected Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. Thousands of Islamists, government opponents, bloggers and activists have been imprisoned and partially convicted in recent years.

"The polar explorer Arved Fuchs returned from his Greenland expedition on Friday. On his arrival in the port of Hamburg, he was welcomed by the skipper Boris Herrmann, who had brought climate activist Greta Thunberg across the Atlantic with the racing yacht ""Malizia""."

"In recent months, together with a team of scientists, Fuchs had investigated and documented the consequences of global warming on his sailing ship ""Dagmar Aaen"" on the coasts of Iceland and Greenland."

The Fridays for Future movement is a blessing, said the polar researcher. He has been waiting for years for the young generation to speak up. It has been known for decades that the Earth is warming. Nevertheless, many acted as if there were a planet B.

"""What happens at sea often takes place out of the public eye,"" said Fuchs. He and his team wanted to inform people about the effects of global warming and marine litter. Among other things, the expedition used a drone to measure Greenland glacier ice and used nets to fish for microplastics."

"For his ""struggle for a sustainable and respectful use of the world's oceans"", the polar researcher from Bad Bramstedt was awarded the ""Seadevcon Maritime Award"" at the Hamburg Climate Week. ""For all of us who care about the survival of the oceans, Arved Fuchs is a great role model,"" said skipper Boris Herrmann at the award ceremony. ""He is a witness to the changes that have taken place in the Arctic in recent decades."""

430 euros for two plates of spaghetti with fish in a simple restaurant not far from the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome: that seemed too much for two Japanese tourists. Although the bill including an 80 euro tip was paid by the two women, they posted the receipt on Facebook, which triggered heated reactions.

"""Such cases damage the reputation of Rome. We call on the police to investigate whether this is a fraud,"" demanded a spokesman for Federagit, the association of travel guides in Rome, according to the Roman daily Il Messaggero (Friday edition)."

Promptly came the reaction of the owners of the restaurant. The Japanese women had ordered not only spaghetti, but also fresh fish, justified the local owner. However, this can not be inferred from the bill. Also a tip of up to 20 percent of the bill is normal, said the innkeeper.

A phone call in Ukraine, and everything is broken? US President Donald Trump could actually face impeachment after the turbulent revelations of the past few days, the Democrats now want to examine this with their investigation in the House of Representatives as soon as possible - there is talk of weeks until a decision would be made.

At the beginning of the scandal is allegedly the telephone call with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The accusation of the whistleblower, who ultimately brought the conversation to the public out of concern for national security and the democracy of the USA with his complaint, is monstrous: The president has abused the power of his office to instrumentalize the government of another country for influencing the 2020 election. He has exploited the dependence of Ukraine extortionately and thus wanted to force it to take action against a political opponent.

The core of this project can also be traced in the now published transcript of the conversation with Zelensky, although it does not reproduce the full text. However, the July 25 phone call is only one episode of a much larger story, at the center of which, in addition to Trump, is his personal lawyer: Rudy Giuliani.

"The story begins from the public's point of view in May 2019, when the New York Times reports on Rudy Giuliani's travel plans to Ukraine. He wants to meet with the newly elected President Zelensky in Kiev, and the lawyer himself knows very well that his intentions are delicate. ""We don't interfere in an election, we interfere in an investigation, which we have the right to do,"" he tells the newspaper. One might think it's inappropriate, but ""there's nothing illegal about that."" Giuliani wants investigations to be pursued in Ukraine, for which there is hardly any basis - ""because this information will be very, very helpful to my client and could turn out to be helpful to my government."""

The lawyer and former New York mayor seems to have become infected with right-wing conspiracy fantasies fixated on Trump’s opponent in the 2016 election: Hillary Clinton colluded with actors in Ukraine, critics said at the time, in order to construct a reason for the Russia investigation in the US. However, this accusation was never to be taken seriously.

This is precisely the investigation that Trump will talk about so prominently on the phone with Zelensky in July. The version of Giuliani and the president is that the former vice president and currently promising candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, Joe Biden, as the Ukraine representative of the Obama administration, had pushed for the dismissal of the then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, in order to stop the investigation for which he was in charge of the gas company on whose supervisory board his son Hunter Biden worked. Biden senior had financially blackmailed Ukraine in order to cover up the corrupt machinations of his family.

In fact, the process was somewhat different. When Joe Biden demanded that the Ukrainian prosecutor general had to go, the investigation against the gas company had already been completed, and Hunter Biden was never directly affected. Schokin himself was also accused of deeply corrupt conduct; the US government was by no means the only Western partner pushing for his dismissal. Incidentally, the Obama administration even explicitly supported the investigation against the company.

Disruptions on Instagram Facebook and Whatsapp: Social media are down

Users worldwide report massive disruptions to Instagram and Facebook. Accordingly, especially Germany, Great Britain and Spain are affected. On the website allerstörme.de, users report that Facebook has repeatedly failed to load since about 3.30 p.m. Instagram also issues the error message that content could not be loaded. Whatsapp also seems to be affected by the disruption, although so far not to the same extent.

It’s not the first massive incident this year. Services were down for several hours in March and July. And, as in previous cases, users are turning to Twitter to vent their anger.

Three Polish scientists have been rescued from the ice of Antarctica by the Chilean Air Force. They were traveling with a rubber dinghy and several miles from their base when their engine failed. They were lucky in the accident - the Chilean rescue helicopter needed less than an hour for the rescue.

"""At 9:30 we received the news, shortly before ten we started, and a good 20 minutes later we were above the dinghy""."

Poland has been operating the Henryk Arctowski Polish Antarctic Station on King George Island since 1977, with 19 scientists working there. The frozen researchers were safely returned to their research station.

Inductive technology via Qi standard is extremely practical, but should not be used.

Since several new smartphones have recently come onto the market that support wireless charging and sell very well - especially the new iPhone 11 models, we would like to recall a study from the beginning of July. Wireless charging of mobile devices is extremely practical, but not necessarily recommended.

Researchers warn against the wireless charging of smartphones. According to the findings of the University of Warwick, this is extremely harmful for the devices. The reason for this is the significantly greater heat generation. If a mobile phone is charged normally by cable, the battery heats up to 27 degrees within three hours. In wireless charging, however, the researchers have always measured more than 30 degrees, even when the smartphone is perfectly aligned on the charging pad. If the mobile phone is slightly next to the coil, the temperature rises even higher. In addition, the wattage of the charging pad also increases, which in turn drives up the power consumption.

According to the researchers, temperature is a decisive factor for the durability of batteries. Every single degree plays a role in this. When charging at higher temperatures, the battery not only loses capacity, but it also does not last as long overall. The service life is therefore lower. The researchers therefore advise that the smartphone should always be charged by cable. Since battery replacement is always associated with high costs with modern smartphones, this should be a helpful tip. Apple has recently even increased the cost of battery replacement once again - for all iPhones.

The technology is extremely convenient:Simply place the device on an appropriate charging pad - these are now even already installed in many restaurants, airports, hotels and cars - and the battery is charged without annoying cable clutter and tedious plug fiddling. Since Qi (stands for inductive energy transmission) is a worldwide standard in which, exceptionally, even Apple participates, there are hardly any restrictions. Nevertheless, according to the researchers, the technology should only be used in exceptional cases.

Everest traffic jam photographer: 13 eight-thousanders in six months

According to his own information, a Nepalese climber has climbed 13 of the 14 highest mountains in the world in just six months. Nirmal Purja (36) has reached the top of Manaslu in Nepal, setting a record, according to his expedition operator.

"The former soldier wants to climb all 14 eight-thousanders in seven months. Purja calls his project ""Mission Possible"". He has already made international headlines: he took a photo of climbers queuing on Mount Everest that went viral in the spring."

The image of the crowds triggered a debate about stronger safety measures on the 8,848-meter-high mountain and the highest peak on earth. In May, eleven climbers had died during the ascent within a few days.

A problem for Purja could be the ascent of the 14th eight-thousander: Chinese authorities are currently blocking the Xixabangma mountain in Tibet. Among other things, bad weather is cited as the reason for this. At the beginning of the week, Purja wrote on Twitter that Nepal's government wanted to talk to China to enable him to climb.

"Among the dead animals was a pregnant elephant cow, a police spokesman said on Friday. ""We suspect that the elephants were poisoned."""

The four carcasses were found in a protected area near the famous and visited by many tourists former rock fortress Sigiriya. According to the police spokesman, the animals were probably between 15 and 25 years old. An autopsy was ordered to determine the cause of death.

In Sri Lanka, almost 200 elephants are killed every year. The perpetrators are often farmers on whose land the animals had previously kept themselves harmless. At the same time, around 50 people are killed by elephants every year. This usually happens when the animals move through villages built close to their habitat.

It is estimated that there are only about 7,000 elephants left in Sri Lanka. Their killing is theoretically punishable by death.

"The British oil tanker ""Stena Impero"" is leaving the port city of Bandar Abbas more than two months after it was seized by Iran. This was announced by the maritime office of Bandar Abbas, according to the news agency IRNA. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards had detained the British-flagged tanker on 19 July on charges of violating maritime law in the Persian Gulf."

"The responsible economic committee of the House of Commons wants to comprehensively investigate the bankruptcy of the travel giant Thomas Cook. It will deal with the salary packages of the executive board as well as the question of why the British government did not want to set a financial example for the company, which is fighting for survival. ""We are interested in the supervision of the company as well as control by external auditors,"" said committee chairman Rachel Reeves in London. ""Apparently we are dealing with a bad example of management greed."""

According to experts, genes are overestimated in colorectal cancer risk

The role of genes in the familial increased risk of colorectal cancer has apparently been overestimated so far. Researchers at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) Heidelberg come to this conclusion in a recent study. Other risk factors, such as family eating habits, probably weigh more heavily than previously assumed. This has consequences for calculations of the individual risk of colorectal cancer, the DKFZ scientists stress.

"Musk wrote this in an e-mail to Tesla employees published on Thursday (local time) by the industry blog ""Electrek"". Demand was strong, so that Tesla could record 110,000 orders, Musk's newsletter continued."

The challenge was to get the cars to customers quickly. To this end, Tesla had to deploy as many resources as possible at the end of the quarter.

Investors liked the information: Tesla's shares went out of trading with an increase of more than six percent. The price has not increased that much in almost four months. In the second quarter, Tesla had delivered a good 95,000 cars and thus reached its previous record.

Does British government want to circumvent Brexit law? Johnson restrained

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is keeping coy about whether he is looking for ways to circumvent the law recently passed by Parliament against an unregulated Brexit. In response to a question on Friday, he merely told journalists that his government would comply with current law.

"The law stipulates that the government must request a postponement of the exit date if no agreement with the EU is reached by mid-October. Johnson criticizes this as a ""surrender bill"" that makes negotiations with the EU more difficult."

"Former British Prime Minister John Major had suggested on Thursday that Johnson could try to use ""political chicanery"" to circumvent the law. Johnson could use a procedural trick that would postpone the entry into force of the law until after leaving the EU."

"Johnson said he was seeking a treaty with the European Union. ""We are confident of leaving the EU on 31 October and the best way forward is with an agreement."""

"Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has increased the pressure on the European treaty partners in the dispute over the rescue of the historic nuclear agreement. ""Unfortunately, the European states are showing inability or unwillingness when it comes to concrete actions,"" Rouhani said on Thursday at a press conference on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. In the event that they did not stand by their promises, he held out the prospect of ""further steps"" away from the agreements of the painstakingly negotiated 2015 agreement."

"The background is the conflict over the international agreement to prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb, which in return included a commitment to Tehran to normalize economic relations. The US single-handedly withdrew from the accord in 2018 in order to force Iran with ""maximum pressure"" to change course in what is seen as an aggressive Middle East policy. President Donald Trump's administration wants to negotiate a new agreement with tougher conditions and is now again relying on tough sanctions against Tehran. Iran recently responded by restarting the treaty's limited uranium enrichment."

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed in a report that the Islamic Republic is now using the centrifuges installed at the beginning of September with uranium or has at least prepared them for use. According to the IAEA, Iran is also preparing to build more than 300 more centrifuges.

Perhaps the Europeans were not prepared to bear their share of the deal and therefore left the Iranians alone with the costs and the burden of oppressive US sanctions, Rouhani suspected. However, there would still be further talks, which would hopefully bring a solution.

Rouhani continues to deny Iran's involvement in attacks in Saudi Arabia

"However, the situation has changed following an attack on an important oil facility in Saudi Arabia in mid-September: Germany, France and the United Kingdom followed the US assessment on Monday that Tehran was responsible for the attack. Originally, the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen had claimed responsibility for the attack, but this was seen as a false confession by the US. ""We have nothing to do with it,"" Rouhani reiterated his position on Wednesday."

"""Those who make such accusations must provide proof of this,"" Rouhani said. However, the European leaders had not been able to do so in the talks with him during the UN general debate. Instead, they had only referred to the fact that the rebels in Yemen could not carry out an attack like this. Rouhani had met in recent days with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson."

"Before possible talks with US President Trump, the far-reaching sanctions imposed by the US administration must first be lifted, Rouhani demanded. He called on the government in Washington to switch to a policy of ""dialogue and reason""."

Astronomers are currently observing a comet from the depths of space. This has only been achieved once before. The comet allows conclusions to be drawn about other solar systems.

What was initially only a conjecture has now been confirmed: an interstellar guest is cruising through our solar system. The comet from deep space was christened 2I/Borisov after its discoverer and has aroused the interest of astronomers all over the world.

The well-travelled comet was discovered on 30 August by amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov at the Margo Observatory in Crimea - with a self-made telescope of 65 centimetres in diameter. Observations by various observatories not only confirmed that it was an unknown comet, but also showed that it did not originate from our solar system.

After 1I/'Oumuamua from 2017, 2I/Borisov is only the second interstellar object to be spotted during a flight through our solar system.

"2I/Borisov offers astronomers a rare chance to gain close-up insights into an alien solar system before it disappears forever. Initial observations show that the interstellar comet is similar to those of our own system, as reported by the Astrophysical Institute of the Canaries. ""The comet's current velocity is high, about 150,000 kilometres per hour, which at this distance is well above the typical velocities of objects orbiting the Sun,"" reported Davide Farnocchia from the US space agency Nasa in a statement."

According to the analyses, the comet is traveling on a so-called hyperbolic orbit, which leads it out of our system - and clearly of interstellar origin, as the International Astronomical Union (IAU) announced. It is also responsible for the naming and categorization of celestial bodies. In honor of its discoverer, the interstellar tail star, which was initially listed under the catalog number C/2019 Q4, received from it the designation 2I/Borisov, whereby the first part of the name indicates that it is the second interstellar object discovered in our solar system.

"The astronomers are lucky: In contrast to 1I/'Oumuamua, 2I/Borisov has already been spotted on approach, leaving the researchers many months for investigations. ""The object will reach its greatest brightness in mid-December and then be seen with medium-sized telescopes until April 2020,"" explained Farnocchia. ""After that, it will only be observed with larger, professional telescopes until October 2020."""

Several observatories have already targeted the visitor. In an initial investigation, a team led by Karen Meech from the University of Hawaii, who had already led the characterization of 1I/'Oumuamua, determined the diameter of the celestial object at 2 to 16 kilometers. Images from the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii show a distinct tail of the comet.

"Researchers at the Astrophysical Institute of the Canaries (IAC) have already obtained a first so-called spectrum from the interstellar tail star, which provides a kind of fingerprint of its chemical composition. ""The spectrum of this object is similar to that of comets in our solar system, and this indicates that their composition must be similar,"" reported IAC researcher Julia de León. This observation suggests that comets in other solar systems could form through processes similar to ours, added de León's colleague Javier Licandro."

According to the IAU, the discovery of two interstellar visitors within just two years suggests that these objects could open up a new way of exploring certain processes in other solar systems. However, it is still difficult to estimate how frequent such visits are. One of the next interstellar visitors could possibly be intercepted by a planned satellite mission of the European space agency Esa.

"The agency wants to station the three-part space probe ""Comet Interceptor"" (English: comet interceptor) in a waiting position at a distance of 1.5 million kilometres from Earth by 2028. According to Esa Science Director Günther Hasinger, it will either lie in wait for a still untouched, fresh comet from our own solar system, or for an interstellar visitor such as 1I/'Oumuamua."

Just in time for the 70th birthday of the People's Republic, the time has come: the first passenger aircraft of China United Airlines has landed at the new mega-airport in the south of the Chinese capital, a special honour for the captain and crew.

"The new airport is expected to handle around 45 million passengers annually by 2022, and this figure is expected to rise to 72 million by 2025. China's President Xi Jinping personally announced the opening of the 450 billion project. China's latest prestige project is also called ""starfish"" because of its six-armed building structure."

The complex has four runways, which will later be expanded to seven, and is equipped with the world's largest automatic air traffic management system. A new subway transports passengers to downtown Beijing in just 20 minutes.

During construction, the Chinese had already announced several times that Berlin could learn from Beijing. So far, the opening of the - and much smaller - capital airport in Germany, which has been under construction since 2006, has been repeatedly postponed. By contrast, the first passenger plane landed in Beijing after just four years.

New supersonic aircraft to fly in 2030: from London to Sydney in four and a half hours

"From London to Sydney in just four and a half hours - this is the dream of the British space agency UK Space Agency. This supersonic flight, targeted for the 2030s, is to be made possible by a special drive (Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine, Sabre), which is being developed by the company Reaction Engines from Oxfordshire, the US broadcaster CNN quoted the agency as saying. ""This is the technology that could definitely achieve this,"" agency chief Graham Turnock told the broadcaster. ""We are talking about the 2030s for commissioning, and the work is already very advanced."""

"In order to advance the project, the British space agency wants to work more closely with the Australian. A flight from the British capital to the Australian metropolis currently takes about 20 hours. As previously the only supersonic aircraft for passenger transport, Concorde had covered the New York-Paris route from 1976 until it ceased operations in 2003, taking three to three and a half hours. In 2000, there was an accident during the take-off of a Concorde at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, in which all 109 passengers died. Last year, the US aircraft manufacturer Lockheed Martin announced plans to develop a supersonic aircraft, the ""X-Plane"", together with the US space agency Nasa. Virgin Galactic also has such developments in its programme."

"""Sabre will make the world smaller with its high-speed point-to-point transport,"" writes Reaction Engines, among other things, on its homepage. The Sabre drive could be used for efficient travel at a speed of Mach 5 - which means five times as fast as sound. In addition, such aircraft can also be used outside the Earth's atmosphere, thus enabling the ""next generation of truly reusable framing devices""."

Uproar in Washington: Trump wants to track down anonymous tipsters in Ukraine affair

In the Ukraine affair over the US president's possible abuse of power, Donald Trump wants to track down possible leaks in the White House.

"""I want to know who gave the whistleblower the information,"" Trump told employees of the U.S. Embassy to the United Nations in New York on Thursday. The person concerned was almost ""a spy"" and had been dealt with ""a little differently"" in the past than today."

This was seen as an attempt to intimidate tipsters. Actually, the event was not open to the public. However, several US media distributed audio recordings of the speech on Friday. Democrats reacted indignantly to the president’s statement.

On Tuesday, the Democrats in the US House of Representatives announced preparations for impeachment proceedings against Trump. Their accusations are based primarily on the written complaint of an anonymous intelligence official who makes serious accusations against Trump and his government headquarters. Following great public pressure, the whistleblower’s accounts were made public on Thursday.

"As part of his work, the whistleblower claims to have received information from several government employees that the US president is ""using the power of his office"" to get another country to interfere in his favor in the 2020 US election."

At the center of the allegations is a controversial phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in late July, in which Trump encouraged his counterpart to conduct investigations that could harm his political rival, Joe Biden, into Biden’s son Hunter’s past business dealings in Ukraine and alleged efforts to protect his offspring from Ukrainian justice. Biden is ahead in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination for the 2020 election.

With regard to the Ukraine phone call, the whistleblower also accused the White House of a cover-up: Leading government employees had tried to keep the exact wording of the conversation under cover. As usual, an electronic wording protocol had been made. However, after the conversation, on the instructions of lawyers from the White House, this had been removed from a database usually provided for this purpose and instead stored in a specially protected system. So far, only a rough transcript of the conversation has been published.

"The identity of the whistleblower is not publicly known.The ""New York Times"" reported that he was an employee of the foreign intelligence agency CIA."

"On Friday, Trump again questioned the credibility of the source. In a series of tweets on the subject, the president wrote, among other things, that the ""so-called whistleblower"" had disseminated second-hand information that had turned out to be inaccurate. Therefore, there may be no tipsters or spies at all."

However, Trump’s comments in New York about those who allegedly leaked information to the whistleblower sparked outrage. Nancy Pelosi, the leader of the US House of Representatives, reacted with concern and complained that Trump’s statement once again undermined the integrity of the government.

In the House of Representatives, various investigations against Trump and his entourage have been underway for months in various committees. In view of the Ukraine allegations, the Democrats are now pushing ahead with investigations with new force in order to initiate a possible impeachment process against Trump.

"""The whistleblower has given us a road map for our investigation,"" said the head of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff. Trump sharply attacked Schiff, accused him of misrepresenting things and again demanded the resignation of the committee chairman. Trump regularly berates Schiff and had already demanded his withdrawal months ago."

"In a statement released on Friday, more than 300 former US government employees from the security and foreign policy fields, most of whom worked under Democratic but also Republican presidents, backed the investigation launched by the Democrats for a possible impeachment. If the allegations prove true, it would be ""an unconscionable abuse of power"" by Trump, it said."

There is no exact timetable for the further procedure. With their majority in the House of Representatives, the Democrats could exert a so-called impeachment procedure. However, the decision on an actual impeachment would be made in the Senate, where Trump's Republicans have the majority. Therefore, the prospects for the success of such a procedure are slim. So far, no US president has been removed from office by an impeachment procedure.

The plans of the VW brand to further reduce production costs could be at the expense of production in Germany and Europe. This concern is driving the works council of the carmaker. The brand wants to reduce its annual factory costs of ten billion euros by two billion euros by 2023, of which 500 million euros are to be saved already this year.

"One key to this is personnel costs. The ""Future Pact"" negotiated between the company and the works council in 2016 already provides for the reduction of 14,000 jobs in Germany alone by 2020. Basically, a job can only be cut at the car manufacturer if it is virtually proven that the associated activities are no longer necessary. In addition, employment security applies until 2029."

"As our newspaper has now learned from works council circles, however, jobs in production that were not actually up for grabs are being ""sneakily"" eliminated via another route - i.e. past the official course. In this way, vacant regular positions are often not filled again."

"In these cases, the works council has no possibility of forcing the reoccupation. Meanwhile, there is a lack of staff in many places, the concentration of work is increasing and concerns are growing about a gradual bleeding of the vehicle plants. Thus, the fear is also growing that vehicle production could be gradually withdrawn from Germany and Europe because it is cheaper in other parts of the world. VW only said: ""As agreed, an adjustment of the employment volume will take place in a socially acceptable manner along the demographic curve""."

"The VW brand wants to standardize production worldwide even more and control new projects centrally. This is also intended to reduce costs and also speed up decisions - behind this is the goal of increasing productivity and thus competitiveness. Chief Production Officer Andreas Tostmann said at a manager conference in Berlin: ""Especially in uncertain times, from Brexit to the impending trade war between the USA and China, we are well advised to make ourselves crisis-proof""."

There have already been successes along the way: this year, for example, production costs per vehicle will fall for the first time since 2013 compared to the previous year. Speaking to journalists, Tostmann said that the production time for the Golf 8, which is to be presented in Wolfsburg on 24 October, will be shortened by 1.1 hours.

In our region, the main plant in Wolfsburg is the only VW factory in which vehicles are produced. The Braunschweig and Salzgitter plants manufacture components. VW's internal rule of thumb for Wolfsburg is that 800,000 cars must be built there annually in order for the plant to be satisfactorily profitable. However, in 2018, capacity utilization in Wolfsburg was only around 700,000 vehicles - due to falling diesel demand and the problems with the changeover to the new fuel consumption and exhaust gas test procedure WLTP.

"However, as Chief Production Officer Tostmann already announced last year, ""perspective"" one million cars are to roll off the production line in Wolfsburg. This should make the bundling of Golf production in the main plant possible - because the Zwickau plant is handing over Golf production by converting it into a location for e-car production."

In addition, the Tiguan and Tarraco (Seat) SUVs are produced in Wolfsburg. However, sales of the Golf and Tiguan have declined recently. Therefore, expectations now rest on the Golf 8. Despite all efforts to build up e-mobility, it is to remain Wolfsburg's bread-and-butter car for the time being.

Forced into prostitution with voodoo: human traffickers sentenced

Young women from Nigeria have been covered with oaths, smuggled into the Ruhr area and forced into prostitution. Six suspected traffickers have been sent to prison for this.

Six suspected traffickers from Nigeria were sentenced on Friday in Bochum to probation and prison terms of up to eight years and three months. The accused had smuggled young women from Nigeria into the Ruhr region and forced them into prostitution. In order to enforce their obedience, the Nigerian women who wanted to leave the country had to swear a ritual oath in front of a voodoo priest in their home country.

The victims were between 17 and 22 years old. They were brought across the Mediterranean in rubber dinghies with the help of Libyan smugglers. However, the dream of a better future was not fulfilled. Once in Germany, they were distributed to various brothels in order to work off the alleged smuggling costs of an average of 25,000 euros. Therefore, their wages were completely taken from them.

"The defendants - four men and two women - had admitted the smuggling and subsequent distribution of the young Nigerian women to brothels in the trial. ""The work made it difficult for the women physically and psychologically,"" said Judge Isabel Hoffmann at the sentencing hearing. ""Some were really disgusted."""

The sentences relate to commercial and gang-related smuggling of foreigners, human trafficking, pimping and serious forced prostitution.

FIM's ongoing dispute with the Lufthansa Group has once again threatened the flight attendants' union Ufo with strikes.

"If the company does not return to the negotiating table, the union ""will inform about the industrial action in the LH Group on 14 October,"" said Ufo CFO Daniel Flohr on Friday. Lufthansa and its subsidiary Eurowings have been refusing to engage in collective bargaining with Ufo for months, including the question of whether the union has legally terminated collective agreements at Lufthansa."

"On this point, Ufo now sees itself strengthened following a decision by the Frankfurt Labour Court. Lufthansa wanted to establish that the collective agreements had not been terminated. The court rejected the applications. The company confirmed the decision and is considering filing an appeal against it. ""I think it is unlikely that a second court will see the matter completely differently,"" said Ufo CEO Flohr."

In August, Lufthansa also filed an application with the Frankfurt Regional Labour Court to have UFO’s status as a trade union reviewed in court. The company argues that the union has not appointed a representative board for months and is therefore not in a position to fulfil its role as a collective bargaining partner.

This was preceded by a fierce leadership dispute in the branch union, in the course of which numerous members of the executive board and the advisory board resigned, including the long-time union head Nicoley Baublies. Ufo had suspended a vote that had already begun on strikes by cabin crew at Eurowings at the end of July due to doubts about its leadership.

Until now, Saudi Arabia was not exactly known as an international tourist magnet. However, this is about to change. The country on the Persian Gulf wants to introduce new visa regulations.

With a new visa system, Saudi Arabia wants to attract more international tourists in the future. By 2030, it wants to increase the number of international and domestic visitors to 100 million per year, said the Tourism Commission.

"""The opening of Saudi Arabia to international tourists is a historic moment for our country,"" said the chairman of the Tourism Commission, Ahmad al-Chatib."

Saudi Arabia has so far been difficult to access for tourists. Visas are usually only granted for short business trips, religious pilgrimages or visitors with relatives in the desert state. With the new rules, the arch-conservative kingdom hopes to gain more revenue from the tourism business. According to its own statement, Riyadh wants to reduce its dependence on the oil trade.

In mid-September, several missiles and drones hit two of the most important oil facilities in eastern Saudi Arabia: the country’s largest oil refinery in Abkaik and the Churais oil field. As a result, national oil production plummeted and oil prices soared. It is likely to take several weeks for the kingdom’s oil production to return to its old levels.

Justin and Hailey Bieber stuck in preparations for wedding party

Singer Justin Bieber (25) and his wife Hailey (22) are preparing for their wedding party. The model posted several party photos in her Instagram Stories on Thursday (local time), in which she can be seen in a white wedding look. Reality star Kendall Jenner (23) and others had organized a hen party in Los Angeles, according to People magazine.

"Justin posted several colorful suits, including those printed with bananas, on Instagram and asked his followers: ""Help me choose my tuxedo for the wedding."" According to media reports, the celebrity couple plans to get married in church next weekend."

The Biebers said yes a year ago in a New York registry office. There hadn’t been a big party back then.

"In a recent interview with Australian Vogue, Hailey explained that the two had found common ground after initial problems: ""If you don't want to compromise, you can't have a relationship."""

Two people have died in the crash of a small plane in the west of the Czech Republic. The wreckage was discovered on Friday in a wooded area near the town of Mecin (Metschin), the police said. The dead were a 38-year-old woman and a 64-year-old man.

The authorities had been searching for the plane since Thursday evening, after the crew had sent an emergency signal via GPS. A military helicopter was also used in the search. The cause of the accident has yet to be determined. The site of the crash is about 30 kilometers south of Pilsen (Plzen) and 100 kilometers northeast of Regensburg.

In addition to pests, diseases, alien species, unsustainable logging and the growth of cities are also causes of the threat, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reported on Friday in Brussels. It has examined the stocks of all 454 tree species known in Europe. 265 of these are not found on any other continent. Of these 265, 58 percent are threatened. 66 are already at the highest level of danger and thus facing extinction.

"The IUCN divides endangered species into six categories: from ""potentially endangered"" to ""endangered"", ""highly endangered"", ""threatened with extinction"" and ""extinct in nature"" to ""extinct"". In total, it lists more than 28,000 animal and plant species worldwide as endangered."

"In Germany, rowan (Sorbus) in particular are threatened, one of the authors, David Allen, told the German Press Agency. ""Most are threatened because the populations are small anyway or due to the transformation or weakening of their habitats."""

"It also looks bad for the wild common horse chestnuts. Since 2017, they have been considered ""endangered"", level two of the IUCN scale. In addition to a fungus, the Balkan miner moth poses the greatest threat. It has been spreading from south-eastern Europe across the continent since the 1980s and has hardly any natural enemies. IUCN estimates the number of wild horse chestnuts (Aesculus hippocastanum) in Europe at less than 10,000. The trees in cities, parks and avenues are not included in this assessment."

At the same time, the IUCN scientists drew up new European Red Lists for molluscs, shrubs and mosses. More than a fifth of molluscs and mosses and almost half of all shrub species are threatened, according to the IUCN. This is mainly due to the destruction of the wilderness, introduced species, agricultural practices and climate change. Molluscs such as snails play a key role in recycling nutrients in the soil and are an important food source for birds and other animals.

"""This report shows that the situation is precarious for many overlooked and underestimated species, species that form the backbone of the European ecosystem and contribute to a healthy planet,"" said Luc Bas, IUCN Director of the European Bureau. ""We must limit the impact of humans on our ecosystems and make the protection of these species a priority."""

34 people were injured in the recent earthquake in Turkey. According to the figures, there were no fatalities. Dozens of people had to leave their homes and 14 schools in Istanbul were closed for security reasons, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said on Friday.

Hundreds of buildings were damaged and there have been almost 200 aftershocks since the quake the day before. The earthquake with a magnitude of 5.8 shook the Marmara region off Istanbul on Thursday and caused panic in the metropolis of millions.

Now the government wants to set up a commission to better prepare the country for earthquakes in the future, announced Oktay. In the past 20 years, Turkey has not been sufficiently prepared for earthquakes, said Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.

Istanbul is considered to be particularly vulnerable to earthquakes. Below the Sea of Marmara lies a section of the so-called North Anatolian Disturbance, which marks the boundary between the Eurasian and Anatolian plates.

One of the most severe quakes was one of magnitude 7.6 in 1999 near Istanbul. At that time, the epicenter was in Gölcük, southeast of Istanbul. More than 17,000 people were killed.

On Tuesday, a quake with a magnitude of 4.6 had already shaken the region around Istanbul. Authorities called on residents to stay away from damaged buildings.

Super Bowl 2020: Jennifer Lopez (JLO) and Shakira perform in the halftime show

"Latin pop singers Jennifer Lopez and Shakira will lead the halftime show of the next American football finals Super Bowl, the singers announced on Twitter. ""It won't get any bigger,"" Shakira wrote to a photo of herself and Lopez. She is incredibly excited to be on the Super Bowl stage. It will be in Miami on February 2, 2020."

"Jennifer Lopez said she had dreamed of performing at the Super Bowl since 1996, when she saw Diana Ross take to the skies at the halftime show. ""Now it's even more special because the NFL is 100 years old and I'm going to perform with another Latina."" She can't wait to ""show what we girls can do on the biggest stage in the world."""

"Shakira said in a statement that she was honored to stand alongside another artist on one of the largest stages in the world, representing Latinos and Latinas from the U.S. and around the world. ""And then on my birthday!"" The main sponsor of the event wrote on Twitter that it was the first time the two ""queens"" had appeared on stage together."

Shakira is from Colombia. Jennifer Lopez was born in New York, her parents are from Puerto Rico.

The Super Bowl is the highlight of the American football season. The game and the halftime show are among the most-watched TV broadcasts in the USA. Even if your viewing figures have dropped recently: this February, the spectacle in the USA attracted the fewest viewers in more than ten years. Nevertheless, there were still almost a hundred million people on average.

There had been an uproar around the halftime show of the last Super Bowl: In the dispute over the handling of quarterback Colin Kaepernick, according to media reports, top stars such as Rihanna, Pink and Cardi B did not want to perform last February. Finally, the pop group Maroon 5 led the halftime show - the reviews were not very friendly.

Kaepernick, then quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, had gone down on his knees before NFL games at the national anthem in the 2016/17 season in protest against police violence and racism. With his protest, Kaepernick sparked a movement, numerous players took over the gesture. This caused great excitement, US President Donald Trump sharply attacked the mostly African-American football stars. Kaepernick himself has been without a club since March 2017 and has not played an NFL game. He accuses the clubs of not wanting to hire him for political reasons.

"According to a press report, some banks are likely to pay dearly for the bankruptcy of travel provider Thomas Cook. There is a risk of high write-downs on outstanding bonds and loans. Credit Suisse is also affected, writes the ""Financial Times"" in its Friday issue."

According to the report, banks such as Barclays, Morgan Stanley, UniCredit and Credit Suisse would probably have to write down a total of up to 1.8 billion British pounds (around 2 billion euros) on their books, according to estimates by the consulting firm AlixPartners.

The creditors of bonds would have to accept write-downs of 900 million to 1 billion pounds and the lenders between 550 and 825 million pounds. The actual amounts to be written off are more likely to be at the upper end of the ranges, an expert told the paper.

"How large the losses of the creditors will actually be will become apparent after the end of the insolvency proceedings. A person close to these proceedings did not spread too much hope. For example, the approximately 40 aircraft of Thomas Cook in Great Britain are ""old"" and many of the properties are in bad locations. The most money can probably be made with the sale of the airport slots as well as the Thomas Cook brand."

"The Sea-Watch captain Carola Rackete may have brought men to Italy who are said to have tortured and killed people in Libya. ""We cannot rule this out, but we do not have any reliable information ourselves,"" the spokesman for the refugee organization Sea-Watch, Ruben Neugebauer, told the dpa news agency."

"Other migrants had recognised the three men in Italy. They are accused of raping, torturing and killing people in Libya. The alleged perpetrators were arrested in the reception centre in Messina, Italy. Neugebauer stressed that the refugee organisations could not check who they let on their ships. ""They come without passports""."

On 29 June, Carola Rackete had illegally brought migrants to the port of Lampedusa and rammed a ship of the Italian financial police. On that day, the three suspects are also said to have arrived there. The captain is under investigation for aiding illegal immigration.

The head of the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Ajit Pai, has warned the German government not to trust the Chinese network equipment supplier Huawei.

"We believe that the risks are too great,"" Pai told ""Handelsblatt"" with a view to setting up the new 5G mobile network."

"China has a ""national security law"" that requires any company ""under Chinese jurisdiction"" to follow instructions from the security organs."

"Current law also prohibits companies from informing third parties about such requests,"" the FCC chief added, making it very difficult to have confidence in the integrity of technical equipment and services."

"In the meantime, the Federal Government has agreed to demand a ""declaration of trustworthiness"" from suppliers."

"Berlin initially wants to try to control the risks, for example with technical solutions, the ""Handelsblatt"" reports, citing its own information."

Pai doubts that this is possible. 5G technology does not only consist of the hardware:

"Especially the software is important to keep the devices up to date. This software consists of billions of lines of program code that change over time,"" said Pai."

"It is ""very difficult to imagine"" that a government agency, ""no matter where, would be able to review every single update in real time to detect security risks,"" the FCC chief added."

He accuses the Chinese company Huawei of having close contacts with the Chinese state apparatus:

"The employee company, which supposedly owns the company, is not necessarily independent of the government,"" Pai told the ""Handelsblatt""."

The US has findings according to which government employees are placed within the company. Pai was recently in Berlin for talks to promote the US position.

At night, residents hear explosions. A gigantic wall of fire lights up the sky above a chemical factory in northern France. The fire is extinguished after hours - but the clean-up could take days.

After a fire in a chemical factory in the northern French city of Rouen on Thursday, schools and crèches in the region remain closed.

In twelve municipalities, the facilities would not open on Friday as a precaution, said the responsible prefecture. The Ministry of the Interior had asked the citizens to stay in buildings as much as possible and not to expose themselves to the smoke. There were no injuries. Farmers and breeders were called upon to bring their animals indoors, to protect their feed and to stop harvesting for the time being.

The fire was completely extinguished on Thursday evening, as reported by the prefecture. There is still a risk of odour spreading after extinguishing, according to the prefecture on Twitter. According to the prefecture, 240 firefighters and 90 police officers and gendarmes were deployed at the scene of the fire.

A gigantic column of black smoke had previously risen from the chemical factory. French media reported huge flames and explosions in the factory of the company Lubrizol, which produces additives for oils. The production plant is located a few kilometers from the city center.

According to the authorities, the factory in Normandy belongs to the so-called Seveso category of hazardous sites that are subject to special monitoring. A devastating chemical accident occurred in the Italian town of Seveso near Milan in 1976.

"The prefect of the Normandy region, Pierre-André Durand, told the news channel BFMTV that initially no ""high toxicity"" had been detected in samples. However, pollution of the nearby Seine could not be ruled out. Dams against pollution had been built in the river, the prefecture explained."

The fire broke out in the early morning around 2:40 a.m., the authorities reported. The cause remained unclear at first. Rouen is a regional metropolis and is located on the Seine between Paris and the port city of Le Havre.

French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has called on Germany to make greater investments to boost economic growth in the eurozone.

"Germany must invest now, the sooner the better,"" said Le Maire on Thursday evening at the presentation of the French budget for the coming year."

"We must not wait until the economic situation worsens in order to take the necessary decisions""."

Those states that have budgetary scope for more investment must take action, Le Maire said, among other things with regard to Germany.

"France does not have this leeway, the minister added, referring to his country's high public debt, which amounts to more than 98 percent of gross domestic product. French public debt must be ""stabilized"" and ""reduced,"" said Le Maire."

In recent years, France has repeatedly appealed to Germany to make more public investments in order to revive the European economy. In return, German politicians have repeatedly called on France to get its budget deficit under control.

The French budget for 2020 presented on Thursday provides for tax relief of more than nine billion euros for households.

Among other things, the French government is responding to the protests of the Yellow Vest movement. New debt is expected to fall to 2.2 percent, down from an expected 3.1 percent this year.

Is he still trying to trick?: Johnson dodges question on Brexit tactics

"British Prime Minister Johnson sharply criticizes the ""surrender bill"" passed by Parliament."

Parliament is back, a law requires the British Prime Minister to avoid a chaotic Brexit. However, critics fear that Boris Johnson could still use a loophole. Asked about this possibility, however, the Tory politician dodges.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is keeping a low profile on whether he wants to push through an unregulated Brexit - despite the law recently passed by Parliament, which is intended to prevent exactly that. In response to a corresponding question, Johnson merely told journalists that his government would abide by current law.

"Former British Prime Minister John Major had suggested on Thursday that Johnson could try to use ""political chicanery"" to circumvent the law. The prime minister could use a procedural ploy that would postpone the entry into force of the law until after leaving the EU. Johnson said he was seeking a treaty with the European Union. ""We are confident of leaving the EU on 31 October, and the best way forward is with an agreement."""

"Meanwhile, Johnson's chief adviser Dominic Cummings declared that he saw the political disputes over Brexit as a ""walk in the park"" and was confident that the goal of leaving the EU would still be achieved: ""We enjoy this, we will win, we will (editor's note: leave the EU), don't worry,"" said Cummings, according to the British newspaper ""Telegraph"" at a book launch."

"Cummings, who led the Brexit campaign ""Vote Leave"" during the election campaign before the 2016 EU referendum, is now acting as chief strategist in the British seat of government, Downing Street. He is said to be behind the uncompromising policies that have led the prime minister into an almost hopeless situation."

"Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan or Janis Joplin - they all stood in front of the camera of Linda McCartney, who has become one of the great rock photographers. But it doesn't always have to be the big glamour. The photo book ""The Polaroid Diaries"" delves deep into the very private world of the McCartney family."

"Paul McCartney, who was married to her from 1969 until Linda's death in 1998, was visibly proud and moved when he presented the illustrated book ""The Polaroid Diaries"" at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in mid-September. Illustrious guests included Ringo Starr, Stella McCartney, Olivia Harrison and Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde."

"After the launch event, McCartney wrote on Instagram: ""#ThePolaroidDiaries is a glimpse into the life of an extraordinary pre-Instagram family, a celebration of LindaMcCartney's legacy as a dedicated artist and the instant magic of Polaroid film."""

"With Linda McCartney, who studied art history at the University of Aizona until she found photography, the camera was always there. She has made thousands of Polaroids, several hundred of which are now being published for the first time in ""The Polaroid Diaries""."

"They are portraits, still lifes, landscapes, several hamsters, a sheep in the kitchen and other interiors from the early 70s to the late 90s. ""She wanted real moments,"" writes the art critic Ekow Eshun in his preface. And, of course, one is always the center of attention: her husband Paul - as he has perhaps never been seen before."

He dances with his daughter Mary on his shoulders, talks on the phone in a bathrobe with a bag on his head or wears misshapen moon boots. Sure, the McCartneys were an extraordinary family, but they also led a normal life beyond the spotlight on their farm in southern England or in Scotland. According to the BBC, Mary McCartney said that as a baby she had slept in a bed that her father had made from old potato boxes. And the McCartneys weren’t always tidy, either.

The Poloraid camera captures the immediate moment like hardly any other medium. The shots of Linda McCartney are certainly a kind of family diary, but they are much more than mere snapshots.

"It's about the decisive click: you have to recognize when a great photo is happening in front of you. And then you have to snap it at exactly the right moment,"" said Paul McCartney. ""If you snap two seconds later or two seconds earlier, it can be a completely different photo."" And Linda would have had the gift of always capturing exactly the right moment. ""She just knew she had it,"" Paul said in the Eshun essay."

"The light, the composition, the image detail and the colors are just right, which makes ""The Polaroid Diaries"" not only an entertaining picture book for Beatles fans, but in addition to everything anecdotal, it is also a great aesthetic pleasure, where landscapes sometimes seem like abstract paintings.The perfect complement to the newly released Beatles album ""Abbey Road"", which was released exactly 50 years ago."

Turkey wants to continue importing oil and gas from the neighboring country despite the US sanctions imposed on Iran. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an interview published on Friday that Turkey could not stop importing oil and gas from Iran.

"We will continue to buy our natural gas from there,"" Erdogan said in New York, where he had attended the UN General Assembly."

"But Erdogan admitted that Turkey had problems importing Iranian oil, as some companies had ""withdrawn because of the US threats."""

"Nevertheless, Turkey ""will continue our relations with Iran, especially on this issue and on many other issues,"" said the Turkish president, who has repeatedly criticized US sanctions against Iran in the past."

"Since its withdrawal from the international nuclear agreement with Iran, the US has pursued a policy of ""maximum pressure"" against the Islamic Republic. According to the US, Iran is secretly pursuing a nuclear program and does not abide by the agreement."

Their sanctions have led to a slump in Iranian oil exports and a severe economic crisis in Iran. Tensions in the Gulf region have intensified considerably in recent months.

The US government wants to drastically restrict the admission of refugees. The US State Department said on Thursday that the annual ceiling of a resettlement program should be lowered from the current 30,000 to 18,000 refugees, which corresponds to a cut of 40 percent.

The State Department said that while the U.S. remains committed to supporting refugees, the most important task is to protect and serve U.S. citizens. Currently, the U.S. immigration system is overburdened.

In the future, the U.S. government wants to focus on taking in two groups of refugees: people who are being persecuted for their faith - and Iraqis who have helped the U.S. military in the country and are thus in danger, according to the State Department statement. Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, on the other hand, are to take in a maximum of 1,500 refugees.

Under the program, launched in 1980, refugees are selected from UN camps around the world and resettled in the US. The ceiling of 18,000 refugees for the 2020 budget year would be the lowest in the program’s history. The current ceiling of 30,000 is already an all-time low. When US President Donald Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, left the White House, the number was just under 85,000.

"Aid agencies reacted with horror to the announced lowering of the ceiling. ""This is a very sad day for America,"" said the head of the International Rescue Committee, David Miliband. The US would thus further damage its leadership in protecting the world's most vulnerable people."

Trump is trying to strictly limit immigration to the US – both legally and illegally. According to its own figures, the US government expects 350,000 asylum applications for the coming budget year. These figures are separate from the resettlement program.

"Us President Donald Trump has accused whistleblowers of espionage in the whistleblower affair. Whoever leaked relevant information to the informant who accused him of abuse of power ""comes close to being a snitch,"" Trump said, according to a recording of a private event in New York on Thursday, according to several US media reports."

"According to this, Trump spoke to employees of the American UN mission. When he was asked about the person who informed the whistleblower about controversial events in the White House, he replied: ""That's close to a snitch."" Then Trump added: ""Do you know what we did in the old days when we were smart? Right. The spies and betrayals, we used to deal with it a little differently than we do now."""

Observers assessed the latter remark as a possible allusion to the death penalty. Democrats sharply criticized Trump’s remarks and accused him of witness intimidation. It was also an attempt to obstruct a congressional investigation into possible impeachment proceedings against him, wrote the chairmen of the House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Oversight committees.

In a newly published complaint, the whistleblower accuses the president of having abused his office to solicit interference from another country in the 2020 US election. Specifically, it concerns, among other things, his controversial phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in the summer: In the conversation, Trump urged him to open investigations into his possible Democratic challenger Joe Biden and his son Hunter in Ukraine. Trump denies any wrongdoing.

It is still unclear who both the whistleblower himself and his informants are. However, as the New York Times reports, the whistleblower is said to be an analyst for the foreign intelligence agency CIA.

Time and again, people try to cross the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece. In the process, the often too small boats regularly capsize. Seven migrants have now died in the sinking of an inflatable boat - including five children.

Seven migrants died when a rubber dinghy sank off the Greek island of Chios. Among the dead were a baby and four other children, the Greek coast guard reported. Four children, three women and five men were rescued from the floods by the crew of a passing ferry.

Among the victims is said to be a smuggler, reported the local news portal of Chios, Alithia.gr. The migrants had set off from Turkey in the morning. They had tried to reach the small archipelago of Inousses in the northeast of the island of Chios. Inousses is located between Chios and the Turkish mainland.

It is not yet known which countries the migrants come from. Currently, hundreds of migrants are crossing from Turkey to the Greek islands in the eastern Aegean, mostly in boats that are far too small. Last year, 174 people died on this route, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

"A US concert of the rock band The Who has come to an abrupt end due to an ailment of lead singer Roger Daltrey. His voice failed in the middle of the performance on Wednesday evening (local time) in Houston. At the eighth song Daltrey told the audience: ""I think I should leave it while it's still running""."

"Lead guitarist Pete Townsend asked for an apology and added that Daltrey ""really can't talk now."" Townsend promised the audience that they would get their money's worth at a reparation concert. However, a date has not yet been set."

The Who cancelled performances scheduled for Friday in Dallas and Sunday in Denver. They are to be made up at a later date. 75-year-old Daltrey and his 74-year-old bandmate Townsend are the only remaining founding members. The British cult band formed 55 years ago.

Renting suddenly stopped: WeWork makes real estate markets tremble

Within a few years, WeWork has risen from a small startup to a driving force in the most expensive real estate markets in the world. But now the company is in crisis. Landlords have to fear for billions in revenue.

"The crisis of the office landlord WeWork threatens to upset the balance in the world's largest real estate markets. A few days ago, the company had ousted founder Adam Neumann as boss, postponed the planned IPO and started selling subsidiaries and assets such as the private jet for the executives in order to gain financial leeway for the coming weeks and months. In addition, the British ""Financial Times"" reports, among other things, that WeWork has stopped the conclusion of new rentals with immediate effect. Thus, the largest tenant of office space is suddenly off the market in New York and London, among other places."

WeWork rents large office space for the long term and rents it out to members at short notice, sometimes in small units. These can be individual freelancers, small startups or entire departments of large corporations. So far, WeWork has been burning money at breakneck speed with this business. Last year, the company made a loss of 1.6 billion dollars, with a turnover of 1.8 billion dollars. This year alone, the rental costs of renting new large spaces are said to have risen to an estimated 2.5 billion dollars. To limit the loss, the new management is now said to have pulled the emergency brake and stopped renting new space with immediate effect.

According to the Financial Times, WeWork has now entered into leases with terms of up to 15 years, resulting in commitments of more than $40 billion. These huge liabilities could become a problem not only for the company itself and its investors, but for entire real estate markets.

"According to calculations by the economist Dan Alpert of Cornell Law School in New York, WeWork in Manhattan, one of the most expensive real estate markets in the world, rented almost 300,000 square meters of office space in the past 24 months. WeWork's new contracts alone ensured that the demand for offices in New York was greater than the new space that came onto the market at that time. Without WeWork's expansion, office vacancy in the US metropolis would have increased during this time, as Alpert wrote in ""Business Insider"". The situation is similar in London, where WeWork now operates several dozen office locations in prime locations."

Even in the British capital, the balance on the real estate market could shift noticeably without further expansion of the aggressive startup. Among other things, WeWork is the main tenant in an office building in the center of the financial metropolis that was bought last year by the savings fund provider Deka for almost 100 million euros.

Many landlords have converted their properties for the requirements of WeWork with high investments. If WeWork fails to make its business model profitable soon, the property owners would probably have to write off some of the hoped-for billions in revenue. Despite the long-term leases, they do not have access to the - already scarce - reserves of WeWork. Because the rental of the individual WeWork locations is usually carried out by specially founded subsidiaries, so-called Special Purpose Vehicles, for which the parent company is only liable within narrow limits.

The Russian coast guard has once again taken action against North Korean fishermen. In recent days, a total of 262 poachers have been arrested for fishing illegally in the waters, the Russian domestic intelligence agency FSB told the Interfax agency on Friday.

Just ten days ago, 161 fishermen from North Korea were arrested. Previously, the border guards had been shot at and three of them were injured. This time there were no casualties, it was reported. Communist North Korea is suffering from chronic food shortages.

According to the report, the North Korean fishermen were traveling in Russian territorial waters. There, according to its own information, the Russian Coast Guard is conducting patrols to protect its marine biological resources. 30,000 squid were discovered during the renewed controls. In addition, according to the information, three fishing boats and two motor boats were seized and taken to Nakhodka and Posjet near Vladivostok. According to the Ria Novosti agency, the Coast Guard found a total of more than 8,000 violations in 2018.

Even after complaints from local entrepreneurs, the Russian Fisheries Agency had not issued any fishing licenses to the North Koreans this year. According to the media, thousands of fishermen from North Korea have already been temporarily arrested there in 2019.

The head of the Association of Russian Fishing Companies in the Far Eastern region of Primorye, Georgi Martynov, also recently lamented the high ecological damage caused by the North Korean fishermen. They fished with close-knit synthetic nets banned in Russia. With these, even small creatures are taken out of the sea. In addition, the nets are simply disposed of in the sea, where they would take 200 years to decompose. Also, the ships themselves do not comply with the hygienic and technical regulations.

According to Moscow, three members of the Russian coast guard were injured in the arrests the previous week. One North Korean, who was also wounded, later died of his injuries, according to the FSB. On September 17, Russian border guards first detained a North Korean boat and then a second one after it opened fire.

"The US has imposed travel bans on former Cuban President Raúl Castro and his children. The US State Department justified this in a statement on Thursday with Castro's involvement in ""gross human rights violations."" As head of the Communist Party of the Caribbean state, he presides over a system in which thousands of Cubans are arbitrarily arrested and there are more than 100 political prisoners."

"As head of the armed forces, the brother of the late revolutionary leader Fidel Castro is also complicit in human rights violations there by supporting the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro. ""The Cuban regime's disregard for human rights and use of violence to prop up the former Maduro regime are responsible for the ongoing crises in Cuba and Venezuela,"" tweeted US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo."

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump issued travel bans against members of the Venezuelan government and the military, among others. A bitter power struggle between the government and the opposition has been raging in Venezuela for months. The United States has imposed a whole series of sanctions against Maduro’s government in order to bring him to his knees and help the opposition leader and self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaidó to power.

Cuba is considered one of Maduro’s closest allies. The socialist Caribbean island receives oil from Venezuela in exchange for the services of dispatched doctors. According to the US and the Venezuelan opposition, Cuba has also sent numerous intelligence agents to Venezuela to help the government suppress government opponents.

One week after the largest international climate protests to date, thousands and thousands of people want to take to the streets again today for more climate protection.

At the end of an international climate strike week, the Fridays for Future movement is once again planning actions and rallies in dozens of countries around the world. New Zealand and Australia are likely to make the start because of the time difference before the protests spread across Europe to North America. There, climate activist Greta Thunberg wanted to take part in a major rally in Montreal, Canada. Demonstrators also wanted to gather in front of the White House in Washington.

"How big the global response will be this Friday after last week's record turnout is relatively unclear. Thunberg herself was in good spirits. ""Last Friday, over four million people went on strike for the climate. We'll do it again this Friday!"" she wrote on Twitter. So far, there have been 6,383 actions in 170 countries as part of the strike week, she added."

Especially in Germany, the turnout last Friday was very large. A good third of all global demonstrators - around 1.4 million - had taken part in the protests in 575 German cities, according to estimates by Fridays for Future. This time, according to a list of the movement, rallies are planned in at least 65 cities. Among them, in metropolises such as Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Cologne, but also in smaller municipalities and cities such as Jüchen in North Rhine-Westphalia or Westerland on Sylt, people want to take to the streets for the sake of the climate.

At the age of 15, Thunberg sat down in front of the Swedish parliament in August 2018 to call on her country's politicians to make a stronger commitment to climate protection. This gave rise to the Fridays for Future movement within a short time. Pupils and students, but increasingly also scientists and other adults, are taking part in the climate protests.

Together, they demand more ambition from politicians in the fight against global warming and the impending climate catastrophe. Above all, according to the Paris climate agreement, global warming must be reduced to below 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial times.

Thunberg arrived in New York almost a month ago after a two-week transatlantic cruise on a deep-sea racing yacht, where she had recently taken part in climate protests and summits of the United Nations. On Monday, she gave an emotional speech at the UN in which she spoke forcefully to the conscience of world leaders. On Wednesday, in her home city of Stockholm, she was awarded the Alternative Nobel Prize of the Right Livelihood Foundation for her commitment to more climate protection.

"In the future, people in Russia will no longer be allowed to smoke on the balcony. This provides for a change in fire protection. ""This also applies to smoking,"" said a spokesman for the Emergency Ministry in Moscow on Thursday, according to the Tass agency. The ban is to come into force on 1 October."

Anyone who still smokes must therefore expect a fine of 3,000 rubles (42.46 euros). If the cigarette should start a fire, then the penalty is higher. According to the ministry, the ban also includes burning candles. It is also no longer allowed to grill meat skewers on the balcony.

In the fight against crime on the Internet, German investigators have for the first time unearthed a large server provider for illegal business on the darknet.

A total of 13 perpetrators are suspected of having hosted numerous websites as operators of a data center in a former NATO bunker in Traben-Trarbach on the Moselle, through which internationally active criminals carried out their machinations.

This was announced by the Attorney General’s Office in Koblenz. Seven suspects were arrested on Thursday evening in a major action. Darknet is a shielded part of the Internet.

"Customers of the suspects are said to have been, among others, the operators of the world's second largest darknet marketplace for drugs, ""Wall Street Market"" - which investigators had smashed in the spring.According to the Attorney General's Office, the attack on 1.25 million telecom routers at the end of November 2016 was also controlled via a server in the CyberBunker."

Such a hoster has been excavated for the first time in Germany, it was said. A web hoster provides the infrastructure for an Internet presence.

In the access operation with the support of special forces such as the GSG9, there were searches in Germany and in neighboring countries. It was the result of almost five years of investigations. At noon, the investigators want to inform about further details.

At the end of an international climate strike week, the Fridays for Future movement again planned actions and rallies in dozens of countries around the world.

In Germany, protests are planned in at least 65 cities, including metropolises such as Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Cologne, but also in smaller municipalities and cities such as Jüchen in North Rhine-Westphalia or Westerland on Sylt. Climate activist Greta Thunberg wants to take part in a major rally in Montreal, Canada.

Sense of justice and courage are high virtues, even in the 21st century, in a world full of war and smoke factories that warm the climate. All the more surprising that a 16-year-old girl, of all people, holds the mirror up to the power people of this time. But what is behind it? Is it helpfulness or clever marketing of a climate activist? Historical masterpiece or manipulative tactics for its own sake?

On the one hand, Greta Thunberg sets the masses in motion and gets young people to rise up for a better climate-friendly world. Historically, this is not the first time in Europe that a young person has managed to win over a collection of children and young people. As early as 1212, a child named Nikolaus from Cologne felt chosen to work for a fairer world. At that time, he was also able to win over a crowd of young people and persuaded them to cross the sea to reach the promised land, similar to how Greta Thunberg recently set off on a trip to America on a sailboat.

"But is there a dark side to this? Why does it need a share called ""We don't have time"" to save the world? In addition, Greta Thunberg has rich PR managers at her side. By the way, her mother has published a book, which has sold widely, thanks to the daughter in the spotlight. Even well-tried followers of Greta Thunberg were a little indignant about the last PR show, or the trip by boat was probably too heavy for some successors. This is also not unfounded, because the campaign came into its own in the media worldwide and a lot of money is flowing thanks to the impressive campaign."

Here the minds are now divided: Is it morally right to enrich oneself financially when saving the world? Is it still authentic if certain groups of people work together with stockbrokers during the world rescue operation? No matter what position is ultimately taken, a critical and reflected point of view is increasingly important in a democratically shaped society, because democracy thrives on different opinions and discussions. Therefore, it can make sense to critically question even seemingly pious projects of certain trendsetters.

Comet discovered: interstellar guest crosses through our solar system

The astronomers' assumptions have been confirmed: a foreign comet is currently crisscrossing our solar system - it is only the second of its kind.

Garching/Washington - For a long time, researchers only suspected it, but now they have certainty: A comet from another star is currently crisscrossing our solar system. It was named after its discoverer 2I/Borisov and is currently employing astronomers worldwide.

The said body was discovered by an amateur astronomer named Gennady Borisov in the Crimea. He looked up to the sky with a self-made telescope and further follow-up observations confirmed his first suspicion. It is in fact an unknown comet that does not originate from our solar system. It is only the second of its kind to be spotted in transit.

The great opportunity for astronomers now is to get close-up insights into a foreign solar system. Apparently, the comet is similar to those of our own system, as reported by the Astrophysical Institute of the Canary Islands. According to the International Astronomical Union (IAC), the comet is clearly of interstellar origin and is currently moving on a so-called hyperbolic orbit, which leads it out of our system.

Comet was spotted before approach - and can be observed for several months

"In contrast to its predecessor, 2I/Borisov has already been spotted during its approach, which means that it can be studied from Earth for many months. ""The object will reach its greatest brightness in mid-December and can then be seen with medium-sized telescopes until April 2020,"" explains Davide Farnocchia from the US space agency Nasa. ""After that, it will only be observed with larger, professional telescopes until October 2020."""

According to the first findings, the comet is estimated to be 2 to 16 kilometers in diameter. At the same time, the celestial body appears to be similar to our comets - because as IAC researcher Julia de León puts it, the spectrum of the tail star is similar to ours. This observation suggests that comets in other solar systems could form through processes similar to ours, added de León's colleague Javier Licandro.

However, the observation goes beyond individual findings. The fact that two such objects have already been discovered within just two years may allow a new way to investigate certain processes in other solar systems.

Asteroids keep researchers busy. Just recently, a giant asteroid sped past Earth and came dangerously close to it.

"""absolutely reprehensible"": Rachel Johnson horrified by brother"

"Things are getting lonelier for Boris Johnson. First his younger brother leaves the cabinet, now his sister clearly castigates the prime minister's bellicose language as ""tasteless."" It's not the brother she knows."

"""capitulation"", ""fraud"", treaty"": Prime Minister Boris Johnson is under pressure and continues to arm himself - at least verbally. At Question Time in the House of Commons this Wednesday, this was met with massive outrage from the opposition, and in the meantime other critics have spoken out: dozens of bishops and his own sister Rachel Johnson."

"The well-known journalist and author told Sky News that her brother used words like surrender, as if the opponents of leaving the EU should be ""hung, dragged, quartered, tarred and feathered."" She thought this was extremely reprehensible. She did not recognise her brother's version, said Rachel Johnsons, who stood for the anti-Brexit party ""Change UK"" in the European Parliament elections."

"She was particularly struck by the fact that her brother mentioned Jo Cox, a pro-EU MP who had been murdered by a neo-Nazi a few days before the withdrawal referendum in 2016. Her memory could best be honoured by pushing through Brexit, Boris Johnson had said in the House of Commons. ""It is very distasteful to refer to an MP who was murdered by someone who shouted 'Britain first',"" now criticised Johnson's sister. The perpetrator had obviously come from the far-right camp, which felt strengthened ""by this kind of language."" For all those who grieved for her, it was very distasteful."

"Cox's widower also sharply criticized the prime minister. ""It makes me sick when Jo's name is used like that,"" he tweeted. The best way to honor her is to passionately and resolutely stand up for what you believe in - no matter what view you are. But you should never ""demonize the other side."" He also complained that an atmosphere has been created in which attacks have become more likely."

"Only a few weeks ago, Boris Johnson's younger brother Jo had resigned from his position as Secretary of State and his mandate as a Tory MP. ""In recent months, I have been torn between loyalty to the family and the national interest - it is an irresolvable tension,"" said Jo Johnson, explaining the move."

"Johnson's language also met with sharp criticism in the Church. As the ""Times"" reports, all 118 bishops and archbishops of the Church of England criticize the language that is ""not worthy of this country"". In a joint statement, they declared: ""In recent days, the language has not been acceptable, both in debates and outside Parliament. We should speak to each other with respect""."

"The NFL is sending a strong signal in the year of its 100th anniversary: The halftime show of the upcoming Super Bowl features two women with Latino roots who promise ""an explosion of fun and energy""."

Latina power at the Super Bowl: Superstars Shakira (42) and Jennifer Lopez (50) will deliver the halftime show at the upcoming finals of the US Football League NFL, the organizers announced on Thursday (local time).

"""I feel incredibly honored and humbled to represent the Latino community alongside JLo, which has incredible strength in the US,"" Shakira shared in a video."

"The final of the American football league, which will celebrate its 100th birthday next year, will take place on 2 February in Miami. Many people with Latin American roots live in the metropolis at the southern tip of Florida. Shakira (""Waka Waka"") comes from Colombia, Lopez (""On the Floor"") is of Puerto Rican origin."

"""I love that the Super Bowl puts two women on stage this time - and two Latinas,"" Lopez explained. This sends an important message to all Americans and the world. She promises ""an explosion of fun and energy"" for the show."

"The 50-year-old was born in New York after her parents emigrated from Puerto Rico. In the 2000s she landed big hits with songs like ""Waiting For Tonight"" or ""Let's Get Loud"" and later also released songs in Spanish. Lopez also works as an actress and can be seen in German cinemas from November in the drama ""Hustlers""."

"Shakira became known in Colombia as the star of a telenovela and singer. She made her worldwide breakthrough in 2001 with her first bilingual album and the single ""Whenever, Whereever""."

The announcement of the half-term guests is eagerly awaited every time in the USA. This year, many see the selection as a political gesture. After all, the country is deeply divided, not least by President Donald Trump’s immigration policy.

The Super Bowl is the largest US sports event and at the same time a gigantic advertising spectacle. Musicians such as Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Madonna, Bruno Mars and the Rolling Stones caused a sensation there. As a rule, well over 100 million television viewers watch the NFL final, it is now also extremely popular in Germany.

Last year, it came in the run-up to political controversy. The reason was the dispute over the quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who, in protest against police violence against blacks, had refused to rise during the playing of the national anthem and had been harshly tackled, among other things, by U.S. President Donald Trump. In solidarity with Kaepernick, some musicians had rejected a Super Bowl appearance - including Rihanna and Pink. That the rock group Maroon 5 performed was ultimately criticized by many.

An actor and Youtuber takes on Egypt's rulers: For the time being, however, Mohamed Ali prefers to stay abroad.

"The two men who influence whether blood is flowing again on the streets of Egypt have both spent the past week abroad. One of them floated back into Cairo airport on Friday. President Abdelfattah al-Sisi returned from the UN General Assembly. The ex-general, who deposed the Muslim brother Mohamed Morsi, the country's first freely elected head of state, in 2013, had spent a pleasant time in New York: US President Donald Trump had praised Sisi's actions against political Islam and had not lost a syllable about the human rights violations on the Nile - in a week in which Egypt's security forces arrested hundreds of people for daring to protest against the president. He had ""no reason to worry,"" Sisi said at the airport into the microphones of state television. ""The Egyptians will not be misled."""

"In the president's opinion, the other man who currently determines what happens on the streets is trying to mislead. Mohamed Ali, of course, stayed abroad, where he eludes the grasp of the security forces, who would immediately arrest him if he tried to enter Egyptian soil. Weeks ago, the 45-year-old was known as an actor only to a minority of Egyptians. Today, he is the leading voice that dominates the political discourse in the country's cafés, living rooms and tea rooms: with his YouTube channel ""Mohamed's Secrets"", Ali calls on his compatriots to rise up against Sisi."

He approaches the head of state directly and in quite rustic language. While the people are starving, the president revels in luxury and has magnificent new palaces built, it is said. Ali accuses the army leadership, on which Sisi bases his rule, of corruption and enrichment. Because he did business with exactly these gentlemen for 15 years in his second job as a builder, he seems to know pretty well what he is talking about - at least that is the impression of many Egyptians, as the almost exploding click figures show.

"After thousands had demonstrated against his rule last week for the first time since Sisi's grip on power and almost 2000 citizens, among them prominent civil society figures, human rights lawyers and opposition politicians, were arrested, Ali called for a ""million march"" for this Friday. It was unlikely that so many people would dare to take to the streets. But there were isolated smaller protests, for example in Giseh near Cairo and in the town of Kina near Luxor. Videos on social media showed protests whose participants accused Al-Sisi of corruption and demanded his departure. During these protests, the police also used tear gas and rubber bullets. Initially, these videos could not be independently verified. It was reported from security circles that the police had ended the protests."

"Massive police presence was reported on Friday from the city of Mansura in the Nile Delta, where demonstrators tore banners with the portrait of the president to pieces last week. Security forces set up checkpoints in the city and on the arterial roads. In Cairo, several subway stations in the city center were closed for ""maintenance work"", most of the streets around Tahrir Square, the heart of the 2011 revolution, were blocked. And in Rabaa Square, where supporters of the ousted Muslim brother Morsi holed up in 2013 until the army took them under fire and killed up to 800 people, another measure was intended to prevent dissatisfied people from gathering: Sisi's Future Party wanted to hold a major rally for the president here of all places."

"Mohamed Ali prompted these arrangements to change his tactics: ""Our goal does not have to be Tahrir Square,"" Ali said in his video camera in Barcelona. ""Let's not clash with police officers."" However, this is not to be understood as a retreat: ""All of Egypt is Tahrir Square."""

If the Internet connection always seems much slower than advertised by the provider, there are various testing options.

Anyone who concludes an Internet contract does not need to blindly trust the speed data of the providers. In the event of abnormalities, customers can check for themselves how much of this is actually achieved.

After all, the pre-promised transmission rates are part of the contract and should therefore also be achieved, explains the Verbraucherzentrale Bayern.

If the connection always seems much slower than advertised by the provider, there are various test options. The measuring tools of the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) measure the actual data transmission rates and compare them with the rate agreed in the contract.

"""However, the tests of the providers are carried out according to provider-specific specifications and are therefore not uniformly and objectively calculated,"" says the Verbraucherzentrale Bayern on its side."

If the connection is much slower than announced, customers can set the provider a reasonable period of usually 14 days to produce the promised service. This is best done in writing by registered mail.

If this has no effect even after multiple requests, customers can cancel and, under certain circumstances, also claim damages. However, in the absence of success, only the course of action will help.

"As the first ranking Republican, the governor of Vermont has come out in favor of an impeachment inquiry against US President Donald Trump. ""I think the investigation is important, yes, and where that leads from here is determined by the facts that are established,"" Phil Scott said at a press conference on Thursday. He wants to know more about the whistleblower affair before taking action - impeachment proceedings can lead to the removal of the president."

"Scott said he was not surprised by revelations that Trump repeatedly asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a phone call to investigate interventions by Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden in Ukraine, because Trump has been watching Biden ""for years."""

Republicans have so far held back from criticizing Trump over the whistleblower affair; few have expressed unease about it. Scott’s comments are a first sign of this in Trump’s party. Scott, a moderate Republican, has already spoken out several times against Trump’s policies, such as loosening environmental regulations and tightening immigration regulations.

"It was a shock for all Spider-Man fans: At the end of August it was announced that Sony and Marvel would go their separate ways in the future. Tom Holland's Spider-Man would therefore no longer be part of the ""Avengers"" universe. It was completely unclear how the films about Tom Holland would continue."

"Now the surprise: After ""Spider-Man: Homecoming"" and ""Spider-Man: Far From Home"", Spider-Man receives another concluding third film within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), as reported by several U.S. media. Accordingly, the theatrical release has already been announced: The film is scheduled for release in the U.S. on July 16, 2021."

"In the magazine ""Screenrant"", Marvel-Boo's Kevin Feige is quoted: ""I am delighted that Spidey's path will continue in the MCU. I and everyone at Marvel Studios are extremely pleased that we can continue to work on it ... He is the only superhero with the ability to play in different universes as Sony continues to work on his Spidey verse. You never know what the future will bring""."

But how does the sudden good news come about? Sony is said to have made an offer to Marvel. According to industry magazines, Disney, which also owns Marvel, would contribute 30 percent of the revenues of upcoming Spider-Man films. However, the news is not confirmed.

"How Duchess Meghan and Prince Harry appear in the ""Suits"" finale"

"After nine seasons, the series ""Suits"" has now reached the grand finale in the USA. In the last episode there were many happy endings and just as many cameo appearances. And also the royal couple Prince Harry (35) and his Meghan (38), who worked on the show for many years, were paid tribute in a charming way. Attention, the following sections contain spoilers for the series finale."

First of all: Duchess Meghan did not return for a final farewell greeting as Rachel Zane in the finale, at least not for new scenes. Instead, some reviews once again showed the most memorable scenes with today's Duchess. For example, the moments of the failed and the successful wedding with Mike or how she greets him after serving his prison sentence.

"But her real husband, Prince Harry, was also mentioned casually in the ""Suits"" finale, of course in a wedding scene. When Louis Litt (Rick Hoffman, 49) is walking towards the altar to marry his fiancée Sheila (Rachael Harris, 51), Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht, 47) makes a telling remark about his suit. Whether he has actually thrown on a frock coat, the puzzled Harvey wants to know about the groom, only to remark snippily: ""Louis, you're not the Prince of England""."

A baby and four other children drowned when a refugee boat capsized in the Aegean Sea. A total of seven people died in the accident, the Greek Coast Guard announced on Friday. The nationalities are still unclear.

The boat sank near the Greek island of Inousses, which lies between the island of Chios and the Turkish mainland. Four children, three women and five men were rescued.

Hundreds of migrants are currently crossing from Turkey to the Greek islands in the eastern Aegean. Last year, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), 174 people lost their lives on this route. Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has now announced that he intends to visit both countries.

"Together with his French colleague and the responsible EU Commissioner, he wanted to ""inform himself in Turkey about the state of the refugee situation,"" Seehofer said on Friday. Afterwards, he wanted to learn more about the ""administrative problems of the Greeks"" in Athens in order to be able to help deal with them."

On Friday, a spokeswoman for the EU Commission confirmed Seehofer's planned trip with EU Interior Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos and French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner.

An unusually high number of migrants from Turkey continue to arrive in Greece. On Tuesday alone, 654 people crossed over to the Greek islands, the Greek Ministry of Civil Protection said on Wednesday.

The increased figures recently raised doubts about the functioning of the EU-Turkey agreement concluded in 2016, which stipulates that the EU can send back all refugees and migrants who come illegally to the Greek islands via Turkey. In return, the EU wanted to take in one Syrian refugee from Turkey for every Syrian deported.

However, the processing of asylum applications is only progressing with difficulty on the Greek side due to a lack of staff. According to the Ministry of Civil Protection, almost 29,400 people are waiting on Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Leros and Kos. The situation on Lesbos is the worst: 5200 migrants are currently housed in a camp with capacity for 650 people.

Never since the EU-Turkey refugee pact came into force in March 2016 have there been so many, Staatsrundfunk reported.

"According to medical experts, climate change will put the health system to the test in the future. Climate change is ""certainly"" one of the biggest challenges for the health system in the next 20 to 50 years, said Andreas Zeiher, President of the German Society of Cardiology. Especially the cardiovascular system was affected by high temperatures and large temperature jumps within a short time and increasingly led to heart attacks. Especially people with cardiovascular diseases, the elderly and diabetics are affected."

Green Party politician has to answer for embarrassing photo breakdown

The leader of the Canadian Greens, Elizabeth May, in the election campaign - was the cup manipulated for this reason?

The Canadian Green Party leader holds a reusable cup in her hand in a photo. But now it came out: the cup was tampered with.

Ottawa/Canada - It went unnoticed for quite a long time - and finally noticed. Elizabeth May, the leader of the Canadian Greens, never held the reusable coffee mug with metal straw in her hand. On the party's website, she could be seen in a photo with this mug, talking to citizens. However, the photo had been published before and also distributed to the media - and the mug was still a stupid (cardboard) mug, as the Canadian National Post reported.

"The National Post then accused May of manipulation and that the party was producing fake news in order to appear more credible on the subject of ""environmental protection"" in the middle of an election campaign for the House of Commons, in which Trudeau is also having an increasingly difficult time because of a bribery scandal."

"The photo went viral on social media and sparked the discussion about fake news. One user shares a juxtaposition of the photos and writes: ""The Greens are manipulating a photo of their leaders to hide their disposable cup""."

May was shocked and asserted on her blog that she had not known about this action. To underline this, she immediately posted the original: She, in conversation with citizens, a cup in her hand. This, however, she was right, was made of bamboo. She always had it with her. A spokeswoman for the party said that it was only to accommodate the party logo in the picture, and not to cover something up. Only a part of the photo can be seen on the website.

"May writes that she feels sorry for the employee who did this. ""I don't want to call him stupid, but there was nothing to hide,"" she tells the Guardian, at the same time asking for something from her over-committed team: ""If they feel like editing a picture again, couldn't they do something with my face to make me look younger?"""

The German Greens also got into Shitstorms because of their use of disposable plastic or because of air travel - but their pictures were not photoshopped. So the head of the Bavarian Greens, Katharina Schulze, ate ice cream with a plastic spoon on holiday, as merkur.de* reported.

Allegedly, Jaqueline Ng was promised an upgrade by e-mail from Cathay Pacific. However, when she asked for it at check-in, she was not allowed on board - and she should never be allowed to fly with Cathay again.

Getting a spontaneous upgrade to Business Class - this is what many passengers dream of. Sometimes they are lucky, and the staff at check-in offer a change from Economy Class free of charge.

However, this case shows how not to do it: A self-declared influencer has actively asked the airline Cathay Pacific for a free upgrade. More than 65,000 users follow Jaqueline Ng on Instagram. She flew from Taiwan to New York on 30 May and back on 7 June.

On the outbound flight, the employees refused Jaqueline an upgrade, even though she had shown an email in which Cathay Pacific allegedly offered her the prospect of an upgrade. The influencer claims to have received the letter from a marketing employee of the airline. The airline, on the other hand, accuses Jaqueline of having falsified the mail.

On the return flight, Jaqueline tried again to get an upgrade for the long-haul flight. This time, the woman is said to have shown the same mail, but with a different reference number. The employees at JFK airport were skeptical: They checked with the headquarters. And in fact, the employee, from whom the mail allegedly originated, denied the mail contact with Jaqueline. This was also confirmed by the mail system, in which the messages did not appear.

The airline staff at the airport cancelled Jaqueline’s ticket and imposed a lifetime ban on flights with Cathay Pacific. She had to buy a new ticket to Taiwan for 1,400 US dollars (around 1,280 euros).

With her case, the influencer turned to Elliot Advocacy, a company that represents consumer interests. Cathay had reimbursed her for the price of her original ticket, but Jaqueline also claimed back the cost of the new ticket.

But as long as Jaqueline does not submit the metadata of the mail, the case remains clear: the influencer has committed fraud for Cathay, she remains blocked for future flights. The airline's terms and conditions also state that she does not have to pay for the new flight. Jaqueline does not want to be satisfied with this - and is now hiring a lawyer.

Oil prices fell by more than one dollar within a very short time at midday on Friday. Most recently, a barrel (159 liters) of the North Sea variety Brent cost 61.83 US dollars - around 1.4 percent less than the day before. The price of a barrel of the American variety West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell by 1.3 percent to 55.77 dollars.

The price slide was triggered by a report in the Wall Street Journal on a ceasefire in Yemen. Saudi Arabia is said to have agreed to a ceasefire in four areas.

A drone attack on the oil facilities in Saudi Arabia had brought five percent of global oil production to a halt in mid-September. Houthi rebels allied with Iran in the civil war country of Yemen had claimed responsibility for the attacks. Saudi Arabia, like the US government, blames Iran. A ceasefire would defuse the political tension in the region.

If an agreement is reached, it will be possible to focus on growth and demand concerns, Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, told the Bloomberg news agency.

Oil prices are thus continuing their downward trend of the past few days. A week ago, a barrel of WTI oil had cost up to almost 59 dollars, Brent almost 65 dollars.

Most recently, Bloomberg reported, citing insiders, that the repair work on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia is progressing faster than expected after the attack in mid-September. Accordingly, the production volume has again reached a volume of eight million barrels per day and is moving back towards the original amount.

Recently, there have been several press releases citing insiders who report rapid progress by the state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco in the repair work. However, commodity experts pointed out that Saudi Aramco is currently planning an IPO and wants to avoid negative headlines.

"At the same time, there were signs of some relaxation in the conflict between Iran and Western countries: more than two months after the lockdown by Iran and the recently granted clearance, the British oil tanker ""Stena Impero"" is on its way to leave the port.The crew is now preparing to depart while the ship is still at anchor, the ship's chief Erik Hånell told Swedish radio in a text message on Friday morning."

However, the United States announced that it would transfer defensive missiles and soldiers to the Iranian archenemy in Saudi Arabia. Fears of an escalation between the Islamic Republic and countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom had at times pushed up oil prices significantly in recent weeks.

"Cover-up allegations have been made against the White House in the affair about possible abuse of power by US President Donald Trump. Several leading government officials had made intensive efforts to prevent access to the wording of the conversation following a controversial phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the end of July, according to an anonymous whistleblower. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, explicitly accused the White House of a ""cover-up"". Trump spoke of a ""witch hunt""."

North Korea considers third summit between Trump and Kim questionable

North Korea has expressed doubts that the nuclear dispute will soon lead to a third summit between leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump. The meaning and chances of success of such a meeting are questionable due to the lack of progress in implementing agreements reached at the first summit in Singapore, top diplomat Kim Kye-gwan said on Friday, according to the KCNA agency.

"The US has so far done nothing to implement the decisions of the summit last year, said the adviser to the North Korean Foreign Ministry. He also criticized intensified US sanctions and the joint military maneuvers of the US and South Korea. However, he hopes for a ""wise"" and ""bold"" decision by Trump so that there will be a rapprochement again."

Trump said on Monday that he wanted to know what a third summit with Kim would bring before he agreed to do so. Negotiations on the disarmament of North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs have stalled since the failed second summit between Trump and Kim in Hanoi in February. In June, the two met in the Demilitarized Zone between the two Korean states, where they agreed to revive the talks, but so far without much success.

Prince Harry: Weapons manufacturers should help with mine clearance

"Wearing a blue splinter protective vest, the British Prince Harry symbolically detonated and destroyed a blast mine in Angola. He manufactured the ignition circuit near a camp of the British Halo Trust near the town of Dirico. The explosive device exploded at a safe distance. With a view to the goal of getting Angola mine-free by 2025, he later demanded in front of running TV cameras: ""I call on all those countries whose names are on these weapons, but which have not helped to clear away, to commit themselves to help""."

With an interest rate cut coming soon, the pound is losing value against the euro.

Frankfurt Speculation of an imminent interest rate cut by the Bank of England (BoE) is weighing on sterling, with the British currency cheapening by as much as 0.4% to $1.2269 on Friday.

The trigger for the sales were statements by the central banker Michael Saunders. He brought an interest rate cut into the discussion, even if a chaotic Brexit could be averted, as the uncertainty will affect the British economy for the foreseeable future. This statement is surprising, since Saunders is considered an advocate of a restrictive monetary policy, said analyst Ricardo Evangelista of the brokerage house ActivTrades.

Last week, the Bank of England had already pointed out the strain the Brexit hack is having on the economy, without directly signaling an interest rate cut. If necessary, Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants to lead his country out of the EU on October 31, even without a divorce agreement.

More: The British Prime Minister has taken a high risk with his provocations, but it could pay off for him, says Handelsblatt editor Kerstin Leitel.

Material from the Moscow analysis laboratory is being manipulated - this is confirmed by David Howman, former director of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) and current head of integrity of the World Athletics Federation.

At the start of the World Championships in Athletics, new details about the doping scandal in Russia come to light - and they destroy the little credibility that Russian sport had regained at the beginning of the year and only to some extent. In January 2019, the Moscow doping laboratory finally delivered the required samples from the years 2012 to 2015 to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Now it turned out: they were falsified.

In December 2014, systematic cheating in Russian sport was revealed. As a result, the Wada banned the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada) for three years. During this time, Russian athletes were not completely banned from the world stage. After an individual examination at the 2016 Summer Games in Rio, the International Olympic Committee allowed around 270 athletes from the country to compete under a neutral flag, and 168 Russian athletes competed at the Winter Games in February 2018. They were also allowed to take part in the World Cups in the various sports; in the summer, the Football World Cup even took place in Russia with the host as a participant.

The following September, the Wada lifted the Rusada ban, but demanded access to the laboratory and the said samples. The data should provide information on the extent of the cover-up of doping cases in state doping. They should help to punish athletes afterwards. Three months later, they were finally delivered.

"However, the chairman of the Independent Integrity Commission (AIU) of the World Athletics Federation (IAAF) has now confirmed that the doping data from the Moscow analysis laboratory has been manipulated. ""Yes. We received the data nine months ago. We should check whether the task force has received the right data,"" said David Howman in an interview with the ""Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung"" on Friday. ""We have found numerous discrepancies between the data that the Wada received from a whistleblower and those it received from the Russians in January."" Many positive findings were missing, which were mentioned in the McLaren report."

This confirms the attitude of the IAAF: The athletics federation is the only organization to remain under the spell of Russia. At the World Championships in Doha, 30 Russian athletes start under a neutral flag. They had to prove that they train outside the Russian system and undergo tests.

At the beginning of this week, the Wada had already exposed manipulations and called on Russia to respond to the allegations within three weeks. Russia is now threatened with the renewed suspension of the Rusada and, in the worst case, exclusion from the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.