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Berlin's city government decided on Tuesday to freeze rents for five years, heeding complaints from residents that their once famously affordable city was pricing them out. For decades after German unification in 1990, the capital was a magnet for artists, musicians and students drawn by housing far cheaper than in other major European cities - partly the legacy of Berlin's decades marooned inside Communist East Germany as a mere satellite of the capitalist West's economy. But around 40,000 people a...

a “declaration of war against the NGOs who are saving lives at sea”

A man who threw a milkshake over Nigel Farage, the leader of Britain's Brexit Party, has been ordered to pay him compensation to cover his suit-cleaning bill after pleading guilty to common assault and criminal damage. Paul Crowther, 32, threw the milkshake over Farage, one of the leading figures in the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union, at an event in the northern English city of Newcastle before the European elections last month. Crowther, who lost his job...

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 struck Japan's northwest coast around Niigata prefecture on Tuesday, with shaking strong enough to damage buildings and prompting a 0.2-1.0 metre tsunami warning, reports Reuters. There were no immediate reports of damage, although areas hardest hit by the quake could not be contacted by telephone, according to public broadcaster NHK. Tokyo Electric Power Co's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant was not affected by the quake, which hit 85 km ( 53 miles) northeast off the coast,...

A teenage neo-Nazi who called for Britain's Prince Harry a race traitor months after his marriage to U.S. actress Meghan Markle and suggested he should be shot was jailed for more than four years on Tuesday, the BBC reported. Michal Szewczuk, 19, posted far-right online propaganda which included an image of Harry, the Duke of Sussex, with a gun to his head with the caption "See Ya Later Race Traitor". It was posted months after his wedding to Meghan, whose...

Europe sought to increase the flow of money into businesses that tackle climate change on Tuesday with the publication of European Commission guidelines on what qualifies an investment as environmentally friendly. The European Union has agreed to substantial reductions of carbon emissions by 2030 and its executive wants the bloc to reduce them to zero by 2050 to help stop global warming, the rise of average worldwide temperatures. In order to cut emissions by 2030, many sectors of the economy,...

The majority of Conservative members would countenance the destruction of their own party if it meant Brexit was delivered. A new poll has revealed that exiting the European Union has become a priority for members, subverting traditional loyalties and reshaping political priorities. The majority (54 per cent) said they would see the destruction of their own party if necessary, with only 36 per cent putting the party’s preservation above steering Britain out of the EU. The lion’s share would also...

Remember when Boris Johnson, the front-runner to become the next Conservative leader and prime minister, promised voters in his west London constituency four years ago that he "would lie down with you in front of those bulldozers and stop the building, stop the construction of that third runway"? Since then, his opposition to a third runway has somewhat softened, and he has now told a meeting that the expansion plan had been approved by parliament. London Heathrow, the busiest airport...

The 52-year-old businessman came into the public eye in 2015 after buying BHS for £1 off shamed retail tycoon Sir Philip Green just a year before it collapsed.