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Economists expect significantly weaker economic growth in germany this year than previously assumed. The munich-based ifo institute and the essen-based RWI lowered their forecasts.

"In the first few months of the year, the economy has developed much worse than expected," said ifo’s head of economic research, timo wollmershauser, in berlin on tuesday.

For 2018, its institute still expects gross domestic product (GDP) to grow by 1.8 percent. In the spring, economists had predicted 2.6 percent. For the coming year, they lowered their forecast from 2.1 to 1.8 percent. By way of comparison, the german economy grew by 2.2 percent last year.

TSV rottendorf – FSG wiesentheid (today, 3 p.M.).

Your place is worrisome. Wiesentheid is just one point away from the relegation zone (13)./12) currently in the table. The defeat in schwebenried was already the fifth winless game in a row. Seven points separates them from second place, and twice that number from first place, where today’s opponents stand. At the sportanlage am grasholz, the free-falling wiesentheider take on table-toppers rottendorf (1./26) on. At 2:3 in schwebenried, the team of coach wolfgang oddoy once again dominated the match, created the best chances, but missed them. Twice the hosts knocked the ball off the goal line in the final phase, another two times were the guests post and crossbar in the way.

At the back, great, at the front, bad

After massive criticism of the far-reaching spying program of his intelligence services, U.S. President barack obama has presented plans for a better information policy. Obama promised in washington on friday evening that he would tighten controls on the authorities and make their work more transparent. In congress, he will seek concrete changes in the law. "We can and must be more transparent."
He wants as much information as possible to be made public. "It’s not enough for me as president to have confidence in this program. The american people must also trust them." A balance between security and protection of the private sphere is necessary, he stressed. He also pays attention to how these issues are viewed outside the u.S.: "american leadership in the world depends on the example of american democracy and openness."

In the future, the rules for collecting telephone data should become less simple. The procedures in the secret court, which allows the covert evaluation of communications via telephone lines and the internet, are also to be changed. So far, judges seem to value the safety of burgers more than their rights, obama says.

The NSA, which has come under fire, should set up an agency to look after citizens’ rights and data protection. The ministry of justice will publish its legal assessment of the laws. And the intelligence services should provide better information on websites.

Josef schuster, president of the central council of jews in germany, says a new law in belgium threatens religious freedom throughout europe.

"The ban on deaf shaking, which will now also come into force in wallonia, is another sign that religious freedom is under attack across europe," schuster told the german press agency in brussel. He hopes that the european court of justice will lift the ban and take "due account" of religious freedom in its ruling.

The new law comes into force next week sunday (1. September) in force in the french-speaking part of belgium. It stipulates that animals may no longer be slaughtered without first being stunned. In the northern part of belgium, in flanders, a similar law has already been in force since the beginning of 2019. Ritual slaughter without deafness is practiced according to religious rules in both islam and judaism.

The fact that the widening of the A3 between the biebelried and furth/erlangen interchanges is of major significance was made clear by the political celebrities who attended the groundbreaking ceremony on friday morning alone. In addition to the district councils of erlangen-hochstadt, kitzingen and bamberg, minister-president markus soder, federal transport minister andreas scheuer and state transport minister kerstin schreyer (all CSU).

Roughest opp infrastructure project in germany to expand the A3

The importance of the expansion for the region as well as for the infrastructure of the federal government was emphasized from all sides. "From the netherlands to austria: the A3 is one of central europe’s most important traffic axes", said minister scheuer. He also emphasized the uniqueness of the public-private partnership (opp) that the federal government is entering into with two construction companies.

For the entire stretch of 76 kilometers, pure expansion costs of 1.5 billion euros are estimated. The opp project has a total cost of around 2.8 billion euros – 700 million euros more than initially estimated – making it the largest opp project ever commissioned in germany.

Peter bretscher has been collecting signatures for a few weeks now: in kindergartens and schools, in clubs and on supermarket parking lots. 76-year-old arnshauser thinks cyclists are treated like stepmothers in the city, and that the bike path network needed to be better developed. "I cycle when I can. I can get to town faster by bike, i don’t have to look for a parking space, and i can park it right at the shops or at the doctor’s office," he says, he says. Cycling reduces car traffic and thus relieves the parking situation in the city center. Cycling is environmentally friendly, good for health "but dangerous in the absence of cycle paths", he says.

The pensioner thinks that climate protection is not just a matter for big politics, but that everyone has to make a small contribution. So he has started to collect signatures for "more environmentally friendly bicycle use" to be laid out. He reports that more than 600 people so far support his call for a more comprehensive network of bike lanes in the city center.

Initiative circle considered

Bretscher says he doesn’t want to dictate where a bike path should go. He wants to get the city council and the administration to take bike paths into account when planning for rough tree removals.

On the special track of his rival lewis hamilton in montreal, sebastian vettel took pole position for the first time in five years. The four-time formula 1 world champion secured the best starting spot in the ferrari for the canadian grand prix on sunday.

"Yesterday we still had a few difficulties. I wasn’t really happy with the car," said the driver from heppenheim, recalling the difficult start to the weekend. "Today the car was incredible. I could have gone even faster if I had not had a small mistake."

But even so, it was enough for the 30-year-old to take the top spot on the grid. In a record time of 1:10.764 minutes for the 4.361-kilometer circuit gilles villeneuve, he relegated mercedes driver valtteri bottas from finland to second place by 0.093 seconds.