Business

8 May 2019; DW: Germany's first real-time test of electrified trucks fed via overhead cables amid heavy motorway traffic has begun near Frankfurt. The Environment Ministry hopes the project could contribute to climate-neutral haulage.

8 May 2019; DW: Europe's single market boosts incomes of all EU citizens but especially export hubs, including Germany's Hamburg, says a Bertelsmann Foundation study. But rural Bulgaria, Greece and Romania have some catching up to do.

BEIJING, May 8. /TASS/: China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi will make a visit to Russia, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang said at a briefing on Wednesday.

"Foreign Minister and State Council member Wang Yi will make an official visit to Moscow at the invitation of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov," he said.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco officials voted Tuesday to require brick-and-mortar retailers to take cash as payment, joining Philadelphia and New Jersey in banning a growing paperless practice that critics say discriminates against low-income people who may not have access to credit cards.

The vote by the Board of Supervisors was unanimous.

Supervisor Vallie Brown, who introduced the legislation, said it “will go far in ensuring all San Franciscans have equitable access to the city’s economy.”

SYDNEY, May 8 (Xinhua): The first-ever commercial flight to produce "zero waste" has taken to the skies on Wednesday, as part of a new initiative from the Australian airline Qantas to cut single-use plastics that end up in landfill.

Flying from Sydney to Adelaide, all products and packaging onboard QF739 will either be reused, recycled or disposed of as compost.

TEHRAN, May 8 (Xinhua): Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday in letters to five world leaders that Iran will scale back more compliance with a 2015 nuclear agreement in 60 days unless they keep promises with the deal, according to media reports.

SEOUL, May 8 (Xinhua): South Korean Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul on Wednesday visited the liaison office with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the DPRK's border town of Kaesong in his first trip across the border to the inter-Korean office since he took the post last month.

ABUJA, May 7 (Xinhua): Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday at his office held a closed-door meeting with the visiting President of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Maria Espinosa.

Espinosa, president of the 73rd session of UNGA, is in the West African country on a two-day working visit.

A presidency source told Xinhua that the agenda of the bilateral meeting included issues bordering on insecurity in the Lake Chad Basin, development and environmental protection, among others.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. Navy hospital ship will embark on another humanitarian mission to help countries cope with an influx of Venezuelans fleeing a deep economic and political crisis, the Trump administration announced Tuesday.

The USNS Comfort will leave in June on a 5-month mission to South America, Central America and the Caribbean to help countries “overwhelmed” by the more than 3 million Venezuelan refugees who have fled in recent years, Vice President Mike Pence said.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Citing lower global growth, New Zealand’s Reserve Bank on Wednesday cut the nation’s benchmark interest rate by a quarter point to an all-time low of 1.5%.

The cut brings New Zealand’s rate in line with Australia’s rate of 1.5%. It was New Zealand’s first cut since November 2016, when the bank also cut the rate by a quarter point.