EUROPEAN HEADLINES
FT Europe – Concerns over China’s economy after currency nears 5-year low. Investor worries about slumping renminbi. Central bank attempts to reassert control.
WSJE – North Korea nuclear test sparks alarm. North Korea’s latest nuclear bomb test thrust the reclusive nation back into the diplomatic spotlight, even as doubts thickened over its announcement that it had detonated in its first hydrogen bomb.
INYT – Test revives question of how to curb Pyongyang. Early in his first term, President Obama conducted some quick triage on how his administration would face a gamut of nuclear challenges: focus on stopping Iran’s nuclear programme before it succeeded in building a weapon, but do not waste a lot of energy trying to roll back a North Korean programme that had already built a small arsenal that the desperately poor country had little incentive to give up.
BBC Europe – Cologne sex attacks ‘require police rethink’. Ralf Jaeger, interior minister for North Rhine-Westphalia, said police had to “adjust” to the fact that groups of men had attacked women en masse. Three suspects have been identified, he said, but no arrests had been made.
AUSTRIA
Salsburger Nachtrichten – After nuclear test: US and South Korea call for tough sanctions. According to the new nuclear test in North Korea, the United States decided to use with South Korea and Japan for a united action of the international community against the isolated regime.
BALTIC STATES
Baltic Times – Grybauskaite will not run for UN Secretary-General post. Grybauskaite was listed by a number of NGOs who support transparent elections and an increased number of females in high positions of political power. These includes WomanSG.org, and 1for7billon.org However, the Lithuanian president’s senior adviser, Daiva Ulbinaite, told BNS: “The president is not running.
BELGIUM
Le Soir – Cologne attacks: 16 now identified. Cologne fearful after the attacks. No evidence that it involved refugees.
FRANCE
Le Monde – Populism, terrorism: “We have an economic response.” For the French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron, “our economy is that of a blocked society, where there is no mobility.”
Les Echos – The car industry enters the digital era. In Las Vegas, start-up and high-tech giants pervade the automotive world. They develop a new vision of mobility on services and Big Data.
GERMANY
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) – Harsh criticism of the Cologne Police after New Year’s Eve. Prosecutor: evidence of organised crime. Suspects identified.
Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) – More than 100 legal proceedings in Cologne. Assaults on New Year’s Eve exacerbate the debate on the refugee policy. CSU calls for the immediate deportation of sex offenders. Home Affairs Minister de Maizière considers tougher rules.
GREECE
Ekathimerini – Unemployment decreases in October, agency says. Greece’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in October 2015 stood at 24.5 percent, down from 26 percent in the same month in 2014 and compared to 24.6 percent in September 2015, the Hellenic Statistical Authority, ELSTAT, announced on Thursday.
HUNGARY
Magyar Hirlap – David Cameron in Budapest. The situation in international action in Syria, and the fight against terrorism will be David Cameron’s British and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s afternoon agenda of negotiations,
ITALY
La Repubblica – Kim Jong-Un’s atomic threat. The North Korean government claims it successfully tested a hydrogen bomb. The explosion caused an earthquake registering 5.1 on the Richter scale. The whole world is in uproar, but doubts remain on veracity. According to the US it was not a hydrogen bomb.
Il Sole 24 Ore – Korea, China and Saudi Arabia-Iran make stock markets sink. Oil price falls below $35 a barrel, for the first time since 2005.
IRELAND
Irish Times – France marks anniversary of Charlie Hebdo attacks. France is paying tribute to the victims of the killings at Charlie Hebdo magazine,after what president Francois Hollande has called “a terrible year”.
LUXEMBOURG
Luxemburger Wort – Falling prices causes wage rise to be shelved. A compulsory 2.5% increase on pensions and salaries in Luxembourg will likely be postponed after the consumer price index fell at the end of 2015.
NETHERLANDS
RTL – Dutch PM condemns Cologne attacks, warns against stigmatisation. Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte has described the New Year sexual assaults in Cologne as ‘disgusting and too bizarre for words’ while warning against the risk of ‘stigmatisation’.
POLAND
Gazeta Wyborcza – The anti-Union of two good friends. Jarosław Kaczyński and Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban held a five-hour secret meeting in Poland. They reportedly discussed the tactics towards the European Union which keeps Budapest and Warsaw in the spotlight for contravening the rule of law.
SPAIN
El País – Rajoy prepares the government and the PP for new elections. The President plans to launch a large investiture process and urges his government not to show any inertia.
Expansión – Chairmen ask for stability for their groups to grow. According to them, GDP is to increase by 2.5% and 500,000 jobs will be created this year.
UK
The Times – Sugar tax put back on table. Cabinet swayed by evidence over obesity levels.
The Guardian – North Korea’s “hydrogen bomb” sends shockwaves through UN. Security council threatens punitive action. Doubts about type of device exploded. China joins in global protests over nuclear test.
©europeanunion2016 (part)
