Merkel's party drops to record low in Hamburg voting, Greens make gains

Current Affairs
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party plunged to a record low in a state election in Hamburg as voters gave their first verdict on political turmoil in Germany that has upended her succession plans. Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union took 11.5 per cent of the vote on Sunday, a drop of about 4 percentage points, according to projections for ARD public television. The city-state’s governing Social Democrats were also diminished, winning the election with a projected 37.5 per cent, compared with 45.6 per cent five years ago.
The big winner was the Green party, which more than doubled its support to a projected 25.5 per cent, a surge that parallels its rise in national polls. The far-right Alternative for Germany party was at risk of dropping out of the Hamburg legislature with a slight drop in support. Merkel’s party has been hobbled after her heir-apparent, CDU national leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, announced her resignation on February 10. That followed a crisis in Germany’s political establishment after CDU lawmakers in the eastern state of Thuringia cast their lot with the AfD to install a regional premier, who quit within days amid an outcry.Bloomberg
The CDU’s worst post-World War II result in Hamburg, a city it governed as recently as 2011, sets the stage for a meeting of CDU national leaders on Monday, where Kramp-Karrenbauer will seek to steer the process for her succession as party chief. Whoever wins that post is likely to be the party’s candidate for chancellor in the next national election.

Merkel, 65, has said she won’t run again as chancellor after her fourth term ends in 2021 at the latest. Should a new party leader emerge in the coming months, a complex cohabitation with Merkel in the chancellery may prove tenuous.Adding to the sense of chaos, tensions around extremist activity in Germany have intensified since an assailant killed 11 people, including himself, in the city of Hanau near Frankfurt on Wednesday...READ MORE

World leaders come up short at UN summit as millions demand climate action

International News

Millions of people in 170 countries took to the streets to protest. World leaders lined up at the United Nations to pledge action. A 16-year-old girl, close to tears, shamed them for robbing her of a future.
The pressure to act on climate change is mounting. Titans of global business and politics gathered in New York this week for a series of events, including the Bloomberg Global Business Forum in New York, to acknowledge that more must be done -- but fell short of saying exactly what will be done.
“Time is running out in the court of public opinion, because time is running out to address climate change,” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told heads of state and business chiefs at the Global Business Forum on Wednesday. “It’s right for them to hold our feet to the fire.”
The stakes have indeed never been higher. Temperatures have already risen 1 degree Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) since the 1880s. The world must limit that warming to no more than 2 degrees above Industrial Revolution levels, the UN has warned, to avoid the most catastrophic of droughts, floods, mass migrations and conflicts. “You can just feel the groundswell of popular sentiment, that the urgency of this is elevated,” Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive David Solomon said during the forum.
When asked whether there’s enough information out there to determine his own bank’s exposure to climate change, Solomon said, “We’re working on it. The answer is we’re working on it.” It was a response that underscored both the heightened awareness among leaders that they will be held responsible for global warming and the work that still lays ahead of them.

 The meetings were still “far too much a chance for people to beat their chests and say they’re making change,” said Brad Cornell, a business professor at the University of California at Los Angeles. “But who is making real change?”....Read More

G7 unity under stress as it wrestles with Iran, Amazon fires and trade

Current Affairs

G7 leaders close their summit on Monday with discussion of world problems including the fires ravaging the Amazon rainforest, but overshadowed by President Donald Trump's trade wars and questions over the group's unity.
The summit in Biarritz, a high-end surfers' paradise in southwestern France, saw a dramatic shift of focus Saturday when Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif flew in to discuss the diplomatic deadlock on Tehran's disputed nuclear programme.
Zarif's presence had not been expected and it represented a gamble by French host Emmanuel Macron who is seeking to soothe spiralling tensions between Iran and the United States.
The Iranian top diplomat didn't meet Trump, French diplomats said, but the presence of the two men in the same place at least sparked hopes of a detente. Just this July, the US government imposed heavy sanctions seeking to hamper Zarif's travel, and effectively banning him from the United States.
"Road ahead is difficult. But worth trying," the US-educated Zarif tweeted after meeting Macron and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, as well as British and German representatives.
French officials said Trump, who has imposed crippling sanctions on the Iranian economy over its nuclear programme, had been aware of the arrival.

 The sources suggested that the secretive visit had also been discussed during an impromptu two-hour lunch between the US president and Macron on Saturday."We work with full transparency with the Americans," one diplomat told reporters on condition of anonymity, despite US media reports that the White House had been taken by surprise...Read More

Airbus considers legal action against Germany's ban on Saudi arms sales

International News

Airbus is considering suing the German government as its freeze on arms exports to Saudi Arabia means the company is unable to complete a border security system for the Gulf state, two people familiar with the matter said.

In October, Germany decided to reject future arms exports licences to Saudi Arabia over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and to freeze deliveries of already approved equipment - a move that infuriated allies and defence companies.

Airbus is looking at taking legal action against Berlin over the security system for the border between Saudi Arabia and Yemen - a contract worth some 3 billion euros ($3.36 billion), of which around 1 billion euros remains open, the sources said.

"We are looking at an action for failure to act," said one source familiar with the matter, speaking on Sunday on condition of anonymity. "We want to force the federal government to decide now."
Airbus declined to comment.

The German government has said it could not comment on any potential corporate compensation claims as a result of the Saudi arms export ban until any materialise.It was not immediately clear where in Germany or when any lawsuit would be filed.

In late March, Germany extended the ban on arms exports to Saudi Arabia until the end of September, with a few exceptions.The border system for Saudi Arabia consists of radars, drones and command posts for guards.


 "We are not talking about an offensive weapon here, but about a border security system," the source said.

BMW to recall 360,000 cars in China over Takata airbags

Company News

Germany's BMW will recall 360,000 vehicles in China as part of the worldwide effort to root out defective airbags made by now-defunct Japanese supplier Takata, regulators in Beijing said.

Around 20 people have died in accidents linked to defects in Takata airbags since 2013, prompting a massive worldwide recall of at least 100 million cars from a wide range of manufacturers.
The recall will affect nearly 273,000 models built by BMW's joint venture with Chinese manufacturer Brilliance Automotive and more than 87,000 imported BMW cars, China's State Administration for Market Regulation said.

The agency said in statement posted on its website late Tuesday that a defect could cause the airbags to eject debris at passengers if deployed.

It did not mention any specific incidents caused by the BMW-installed airbags.

The China recall affects more than two dozen different BMW models built between 2000 and 2018, including several each in the i, X and M series, along with other models.

The suspect parts will be replaced for free, the notice said.Founded in 1933, Takata went out of business in 2017 because of the airbag crisis.The BMW announcement came as global carmakers were gathered for the Shanghai Auto Show amid a rare sales slump in the world's largest vehicle market.


 (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Kerala's tourism footfall in 2018 at half its population: Minister

Economy & Policy:

Kerala collected Rs 36,528.01 crore as revenues from tourism last year: an increase of Rs 2,874.33 crore over last year.

Over 16.7 million tourists, both domestic and foreign, visited Kerala in 2018, compared to 15.76 million the previous year, recording an increase of 5.93 per cent.
Of the total footfalls, 1.09 million were foreign tourists. The share of revenue from foreign visitors touched Rs 8,764.46 crore. There was also a spurt in arrival of domestic tourists to the southern state. United Kingdom (UK) accounted for the largest number of foreign visitors, at 200,000, followed by the United States, France, Germany and Saudi Arabia. The number of visitors from other European countries such as Sweden and Italy also rose during the period.

In the first quarter of calender year 2018, tourist arrivals to the state recorded a 12.3 per cent growth of foreign visitors and a 20 per cent rise of domestic tourists.
The Nipah outbreak in May and the floods in August affected arrivals.
“The number of tourists who visited Kerala in 2018 touched almost half the state’s population. This impressive growth has been achieved against the century’s most severe deluge,” said Kerala's tourism minister Kadakampally Surendran.

"It was through hard work and determination of the Tourism Department, tourism trade and the coordinated efforts of other government departments that the state had been able to achieve this impressive growth,” said Secretary of Kerala Tourism department Rani George.

 Tourism Director Shri P Bala Kiran said tourist arrivals in the state last year had been both inspiring.