Straight to it, since it’s very late. . .
First up, McClatchy Washington Bureau covers the Obamagap:
Minorities disproportionately represented in health care ‘coverage gap’
New data from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that minorities will make up 53 percent of the estimated 4.8 million low-income Americans who will fall into the “coverage gap,” leaving them without viable options to obtain health insurance next year.
In the 25 states that won’t expand eligibility for the Medicaid program, many adults earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to qualify for tax credits that would help them purchase marketplace insurance.
China Daily USA possesses:
China’s US debt stake tops $1.3 trillion
China’s holdings of US government debt in October eclipsed the $1.3 trillion mark for the first time, before a Chinese banking official signaled a cut in the accumulation of foreign-exchange reserves could be at hand, a move some saw as presaging a drop in the country’s massive purchases of US Treasury securities.
China increased its Treasury holdings by $10.7 billion from September to remain the US’s largest creditor, the US Department of the Treasury said. Japan remained the second-largest US creditor, even though it cut its holdings by $3.7 billion.
The Economic Times questions:
Quantitative easing is a very experimental policy: Harvard professor
Quantitative easing is a very experimental policy as policymakers do not “really know” what they are going to deliver through such an easy money policy, a senior Harvard University professor said here today.
“Quantitative easing is a very experimental policy. That is because policymakers never really know what they will deliver through it,” Kenneth Rogoff, the Thomas D Cabot Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard University said.
Bloomberg Businessweek gets organized:
Amazon May Get Its First Labor Union in the U.S.
Amazon.com’s (AMZN) labor problems have mostly been confined to the online retailer’s warehouses in countries such as Germany—until now. For the first time, employees in a U.S. Amazon facility have successfully petitioned the National Labor Relations Board to hold union elections.
On Dec. 6, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW), a trade union of the AFL-CIO, filed a union election petition with the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of 30 equipment maintenance and repair technicians working at the year-old Amazon fulfillment center in Middletown, Del. The fact that the petition was filed suggests, according to the union, that it has interest from at least a majority of those 30 workers, who are seeking to vote on whether to hold elections to establish a union.
Quartz has a bar tab:
Law school enrollment is collapsing
The life of a budding American lawyer isn’t what TV shows like “L.A. Law” once made it out to be.
Fresh numbers from the American Bar Association show US law school enrollment tumbling 11% over last year to 39,675. That’s the number of full-time and part-time students who started law school studies in the fall of 2013. Overall, enrollment is down 24% from the 2010 peak.
From The Hill, dissension:
Senators vow to stop military pension cuts
A group of Republican defense hawks are vowing to fight cuts to military pensions after the Senate easily approved the reductions as part of the budget deal Tuesday.
Just before Tuesday’s 67-33 vote on the bill, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) held a press conference with service member and veterans organizations to slam Congress for including military retirement pay as part of the deal.
North of the border and a social Darwinian gaffe from BBC News:
Canada minister apologises for child hunger remarks
Canada’s industry minister has apologised for suggesting it was not the Canadian government’s job to feed hungry children.
James Moore told a Vancouver radio programme, “Is it my job to feed my neighbour’s child? I don’t think so.”
From the Electronic Frontier Foundation, another corporate grab:
The TPP’s Attack on Artists’ Termination Rights
There are any number of controversial proposals in the leaked text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) chapter on intellectual property. Here’s one that’s not getting enough attention: the TPP appears to contain yet another attempt to undermine “termination rights,” which grant artists the ability to regain control over copyrights they’ve assigned away after 35 years.
Termination rights are, under U.S. law, an inalienable counterweight to the power imbalance built into many content industry contracts. Not surprisingly, those same industries have been pushing for years to eliminate these rights, including a notorious 1999 incident where a Congressional staffer, later hired as an RIAA lobbyist, snuck anti-artist language into an entirely unrelated bill.
On to Europe with banksters doubts from EUobserver:
Draghi sceptical on German bank union plan
European Central Bank (ECB) boss Mario Draghi has given a sceptical reaction to a German-led compromise on banking union, saying that it could create a regime “that is single in name only.”
Speaking at a hearing with the European Parliament’s economic affairs committee on Monday (16 December), Draghi urged deputies to agree “a strong and credible resolution mechanism” with ministers.
RFI coveys a curious judgment:
European court backs right to deny Armenian genocide as France prepares new law
Prosecutions for denying that massacres of Armenians in Turkey during World War I were genocide are an attack on freedom of expression, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Tuesday. The ruling comes as France prepares a law that would do just that.
On to the U.K. with chilling news from Deutsche Welle:
Eating or heating: the stark choice for many Brits as energy prices soar
In the UK thousands are struggling with rising energy costs. After last winter’s record number of deaths from cold weather, pressure is mounting on the government to force energy companies to help the most vulnerable.
An estimated 31,000 people died from the effects of cold weather last winter, many of them elderly people living in poorly insulated homes and faced with skyrocketing gas and electricity costs.
People have seen their energy bills soar by 150 percent over the past ten years, and some now say they must make a choice between buying food or keeping their homes warm.
RT eats into the principle:
Worse-off than parents: Britons born in ‘60s and later to ‘depend on inheritance’
UK citizens born in the 1960s and ‘70s will be the first pensioners since WWII to be worse off than their parents, a study has shown.
The next generation of retirees will have to subsidize their pensions with inheritance to achieve the same quality of life.
The survey carried out by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) comes off the back of their yearly report which documented the falling standard of living in the UK this year. One of the predominant factors behinds the drop in the quality of retired life is stagnancy of wages following the financial crisis, the study reports.
Reuters discriminates:
UK rushes out welfare curbs to deter East European migrants
British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday he was rushing out regulations to stop migrants from the European Union being able to immediately claim welfare benefits amid public fears of an influx of Romanian and Bulgarian workers.
With his Conservative party trailing in opinion polls ahead of a 2015 election and polls showing most Britons don’t want the labor market to be further opened up to east European workers next year, Cameron is under pressure to act on the issue.
From The Guardian, heartwarming news:
UK banks benefited from £38bn ‘too big to fail’ state subsidy
New Economics Foundation argues despite huge government subsidies, big banks are not supporting the real economy
Britain’s biggest banks benefited from a “too big to fail” subsidy from the taxpayer of £38bn last year, according to a leading economic thinktank which argued that they are not giving enough back to the public.
The New Economics Foundation (Nef) said the big four – Barclays, HSBC and the bailed-out Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group – were “failing to make themselves useful in the economy” despite the 10% rise in the value of the taxpayer’s implicit support.
Iceland next and an unexpected endorsement for the government write-off of a goodly chunk of the citizenry’s mortgage debts via the Reykjavík Grapevine:
Moody’s Approves Of PM’s Debt Relief Package
Credit rating agency Moody’s believes that Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson’s debt relief package will actually have a positive effect on the Housing Financing Fund (HFF) – directly contradicting the International Monetary Fund on the same subject.
RÚV reports that Moody’s does not believe the plan will negatively effect the economy, because the money is coming from a tax on a company (in this case, Landsbanki) rather than raising individual income taxes. The resulting cuts to loan payments will, they also contend, give people more spending money and more purchasing power.
Norway next and notable news from TheLocal.no:
Typical worker in Norway earns most in world
The typical worker earns a higher salary in Norway than in any other country in the world, with Norwegian wage earners taking home more than double the median per-capita global income, a Gallup survey of household incomes published on Tuesday has revealed.
The median income in Norway came out at just under 120,000 kroner per year ($19,300), according to Gallup, well ahead of a typical income of $18,630 in Sweden, the next highest earning country.
The survey highlighted huge wage disparities across the European Union, with workers in Portugal reporting median incomes of just $5,500, barely more than a quarter of what their counterparts enjoy in Norway.
Sweden next, with a follow to yesterday’s report from TheLocal.se:
Half of arrested neo-Nazi rioters are teens
There were sweeping arrests following the incident that marred an anti-Nazi demonstration by local residents, including families with children, in the Kärrtorp neighbourhood of the capital. Members of the far-right Swedish Resistance Movement (Svenska motståndsrörelsen) attacked the peaceful protest, which left three people hospitalized.
Police in Stockholm are holding 26 people in custody on suspicion of violent rioting and serious assault. More than half of those detained are under the age of 20 including one minor, reported Dagens Nyheter newspaper on Tuesday.
The response from TheLocal.se:
Swedes plan new anti-Nazi rally after attack
Several thousand Stockholmers say they will take to the streets of Kärrtorp on Sunday to protest racism anew, after a plethora of scrawled swastikas sprouted up again after last weekend’s violent counter-demo by neo-Nazis.
“See you on Sunday at 12! Because Nazism and racism have no place in our society, because the streets and the squares belong to all of us, and because we will never be scared into silence,” the event organizers Linje 17, named after the local metro line, wrote on their new event page on social media site Facebook. By Tuesday, more than 5,000 users had said they would attend the event, which was posted on the site only hours prior.
The Netherlands next with a body count from DutchNews.nl:
Bankruptcies reach record levels in 2013
There was a record number of bankruptcies in 2013, according to the bankruptcy website Faillissamentsdossier.nl.
The website reports 12,800 bankruptcies in 2013, 6% more than in 2012.
However, there has been a drop in the number over the second half of the year. Preliminary figures for December show 781 companies went bankrupt, the lowest number since July 2011.
On to Germany with a dour report from the London Telegraph:
German economists fear complacent coalition risks national decline
German government attacked for doing nothing to stop the slow erosion of dynamism and for insisting rigidly on further austerity for Europe
Germany’s Grand Coalition under Chancellor Angela Merkel takes the helm on Tuesday under a blizzard of criticism from economists of all stripes, attacked for doing nothing to stop the slow erosion of German dynamism and for insisting rigidly on further austerity for Europe.
Deutsche Welle takes action:
Amazon workers in Germany continue strike action
Employees at logistics centers of US retail giant Amazon have continued their strike action as they hope to see management agree to talks on higher wages. Unions said it might extend the walkouts beyond this week.
Amazon workers continued their strikes on Tuesday at two locations, upholding their demand the company should accept a collective bargaining agreement for the mail order and retail sector.
More from TheLocal.de:
Amazon plays down ‘record’ German strikes
Online retailer Amazon has played down strikes by hundreds of workers in Germany in the run up to Christmas, claiming there had been no impact on deliveries. It put the number of employees involved far below union estimates.
Amazon said that 1,115 out of 23,000 workers had chosen not to come to work Monday at its logistics centers, including 14,000 temporary employees hired for the holiday season.
The London Telegraph takes us to France and a woeful headline:
Fresh recession risk in France threatens political crisis
The threat of recession is a major upset for President François Hollande, who has talked up recovery and confidently declared the crisis over
France is on the cusp of a triple-dip recession after a key gauge of manufacturing and services buckled in December, leaving the country trailing far behind Germany and most of the eurozone
AP World News collars:
Sarkozy allies detained in French corruption probe
A top aide to former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been detained in an investigation into alleged misuse of public funds.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said Claude Gueant is under questioning Tuesday along with the former national police chief, Michel Gaudin.
According to French media reports, the probe centers on envelopes full of 10,000 euros in cash delivered to Gueant every month from 2002-2004, when Sarkozy was interior minister and Gueant was his right-hand man. Gueant went on to serve as presidential chief of staff.
More French woes from EurActiv:
Falling cereal value hits French farmers’ income
France’s agricultural income per farmer dropped by 16.4% in 2013, largely due to the country’s dependence on revenue from cereals, according to the European Commission.
A large proportion of French farming revenue this year came from cereals, whose real price dropped by 23.5% following a small harvest, down 1% compared to 2012.
TheLocal.fr with more discontent:
Unions slam €12 a month rise in minimum wage
The French government has been forced to defend the meagre rise in the minimum wage, which will see workers’ pay packets boosted by just €12 a month in 2014.
“There’s no Christmas present underneath the tree for France’s 3.1 million minimum wage earners,” was how one French newspaper described the news of the rise on Tuesday.
The minimum hourly rate, currently at €9.43 will rise to €9.53 gross and the monthly rate will rise from €1,430.22 before tax to €1,445.38, meaning a hike of just €12 per month net for those working a 35-hours week.
On to Spain with declining numbers from El País:
Wages in Spain fall for record four quarters in a row
Average monthly income now at levels of two years ago as internal devaluation continues
Average wages in Spain fell for the fourth quarter in a row in the period July-September as part of what is known as an internal devaluation to recover competitiveness.
The National Statistics Institute’s (INE) latest labor cost survey, which was released Tuesday, showed that average monthly wages in the third quarter declined 0.2 percent from a year earlier to 1,801 euros, the lowest level since the third quarter of 2011. The fall was the first time salaries have declined for four quarters in a row since the current statistical series began in 1996.
Action from ThinkSpain:
Rail board workers plan series of strikes in the run-up to Christmas
TRAIN traffic could be severely disrupted over the next few days with strikes planned from 09.00hrs to 11.00hrs on Wednesday (December 18) and from midnight to 04.00hrs.
And workers will down tools for 24 hours this coming Friday (December 20), to cause maximum disruption at the start of the festive season, given that many workers will take Monday and Tuesday off to enjoy a break of several days for Christmas.
ANSAmed inflates:
Crisis: Spain, electricity costs to rise
To cover deficit, new rates go into effect in January
Electricity costs will go up in Spain starting next January to pay interest charges on tariff debt, totaling 3.6 billion for 2013. Minister of Industry and Energy Josè Manuel Soria announced the increase without specifying the exact amount of the rate hike. The yield on 15 years of debt has an annual interest of 300 million euros.
Italy next, with high anxiety from the London Telegraph:
Italy’s president fears violent insurrection in 2014 but offers no remedy
Events in Italy are turning serious. President Giorgio Napolitano has warned of “widespread social tension and unrest” in 2014 as the Long Slump drags on.
Those living on the margins are being drawn into “indiscriminate and violent protest, a sterile lurch towards total opposition”.
His latest speech is a veritable Jeremiad. Thousands of companies are on the “brink of collapse”. Great masses of the working people are on the dole or at risk of losing their jobs. Very high rates of youth unemployment (41pc) are leading to dangerous alienation.
TheLocal.it perseveres:
Severely sick Italians fear job loss
Almost half the number of Italians suffering from severe illnesses prefer not to take time off work over fears they will lose their job, according to figures from the Associazioni dei malati cronici (association of the chronically sick).
The association said 49 percent prefer not to take time off work for treatment, while 43 percent are forced to hide their condition, according to a report on ArticoloTre. Meanwhile, another 43 percent are in jobs that could worsen their health condition.
The Guardian deplores:
Outcry in Italy over video of naked refugees being disinfected in public
Parliamentary speaker Laura Boldrini condemns treatment of migrants seen stripping naked at Lampedusa reception centre
Broadcast by the Rai 2 television channel on Monday night, the pictures appeared to show a practice that was labelled “unworthy of a civilised country” by Laura Boldrini, the speaker of the lower house of parliament. Coming barely two months after hundreds of people died in two separate disasters in the Mediterranean, the footage provoked renewed criticism of Italy’s creaking reception system for asylum seekers and refugees.
ANSAmed declines:
Italy: construction spending fell 6.9% in 2013, says Ance
About 12,600 companies in sector bankrupt since crisis began
Construction spending fell by 6.9% in 2013 compared with the previous year, while the number of bankruptcies has increased, an industry group said Tuesday.
That is worse than the 5.6% drop previously forecast, said the Italian construction association Ance. Since the global economic crisis began in 2008, jobs in construction have fallen by 10.4% with about 480,000 positions lost, according to Ance. As well, about 12,600 companies – roughly one in four – have fallen into bankruptcy, the group said.
After the jump. Greek wins a payoff, meltdown continues; a Russo-Ukrainian deal; Indian inflationary worries; the latest Chinese neoliberal moves; Japanese financial profits; environmental news, and the latest in Fukushimapocalypse Now!. . .
EUbusiness delivers:
Eurozone okays EUR 1 bn aid payment for Greece
Eurozone finance ministers approved Tuesday an aid payment of one billion euros for twice-bailed out Greece, after Athens made good on promises to reform its economy.
“I note with satisfaction that Greece has achieved the four milestones agreed” with its international creditors, Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said.
A complication from Kathimerini English:
As 1-billion tranche approved, coalition split over details of foreclosure legislation
Greece received the green light from Brussels on Tuesday for the release of another 1 billion euros in bailout funding but in Athens there was still little progress on settling how a ban on some home foreclosures would be lifted.
The relief from the news that the delayed July sub-tranche would finally be transferred to the Greek government this week was to some extent overshadowed by disagreements within the coalition and in Parliament about the thorny issue of the foreclosures moratorium.
Until last night, there were still differences between the Development Ministry and PASOK about what kind of protection would be offered once the current ban expires at the end of the year. There was also a lack of clarity about how the new framework would be legislated.
A qualified report from MacroPolis:
Bank of Greece sees 0.5pct growth in 2014 but warns of political risks
Greece is expected to post a general government primary surplus as well as a current account surplus for the first time in 2013, according to the Bank of Greece’s (BoG) interim report on Monetary Policy published on Tuesday.
GDP is seen contracting at around 4 percent in 2013, while the latest macroeconomic data indicate the economy will rebound next year with a growth rate of 0.5 percent.
To Vima talks:
Government and EOPYY doctors begin new round of talks
Dismissals, transition to the new primary healthcare system and employment relations on the table
After a four-week strike, the Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has intervened and arranged to have Minister of Health Adonis Georgiadis and the EOPYY doctors on strike begin a new round of talks, to discuss the changes to be implemented in the primary healthcare system and EOPYY itself.
To Vima again, with hubristic downfall:
Liapis arrested for driving with counterfeit license plates!
Former New Democracy minister drove his jeep without a license or car insurance
The former New Democracy Minister of Transport and Culture Michalis Liapis has been arrested by the Agia Paraskevi Traffic Police, as during a routine inspection it was discovered that his jeep had fake license plates.
Greek Reporter suspends:
Golden Dawn’s State Funding Halted by Greek Parliament
The Greek parliament has voted in favour of halting State funding for Golden Dawn. All political parties were in support, apart from Golden Dawn of course.
This decision has caused reaction among the Greek Neo-Nazi party’s MPs. In particular, Panagiotis Iliopoulos stated that this is a political attack on his party and that it is based on testimonies of “hooded witnesses.” Another MP, Polivios Zisimopoulos claimed that “leftist terrorism,” is targeting Golden Dawn.
To Vima confines:
Three Golden Dawn members detained for violent attacks
The suspects are believed to have been involved in the brutal attack against K?E members in Perama
After stating their plea, three Golden Dawn members have been detained for their involvement in the brutal attack against members of the Communist Party near the Shipyard Zone in Perama, on the 12th of September.
EnetEnglish.gr finds friends abroad:
American neonazis express solidarity with Golden Dawn
Small protest held outside Greek consulate in Boston
Golden Dawn receives support from the Free America Rally, which says it is opposed to ‘government, media, genocide, liberalism, rationalism, pacifism, consumerism, capitalism, marxism, degeneracy, brigandage, egalitarianism, democracy, usury, & whatever else comes up’
Reuters raises the stakes:
Russia reaches deal with Ukraine on $15 billion bailout
Russia threw Ukraine an economic lifeline on Tuesday, agreeing to buy $15 billion of Ukrainian debt and to reduce the price its cash-strapped neighbor pays for vital Russian gas supplies by about one-third.
The deal, reached at talks in Moscow between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders, is intended to help Ukraine stave off economic crisis though Moscow will hope it keeps Kiev in its political and economic orbit.
Latin America next, and a single item from MercoPress:
Uruguayan economy on track to 4.1% growth this year and in 2014
Construction was down because of the completion of two major investments
The Uruguayan economy contracted 0.7% in the third quarter compared to the previous quarter, although it jumped 3.3% over the same period a year ago, according to the latest release from the Central bank in Montevideo. During the second quarter, the expansion had reached 2.4%, and 1.5% previous to that.
India next, and a containment efforts from the Financial Express:
RBI likely to raise repo rate by 0.25% to tame inflation
With food prices showing no signs of abatement, the Reserve Bank is likely to hike its key policy rate by 0.25 per cent tomorrow, the third straight increase under Governor Raghuram Rajan as part of the war against inflation.
Wholesale Price Index inflation in November climbed to a 14-month high of 7.52 per cent as prices of food items such as onions and potatoes surged. Consumer price inflation touched a nine-month high of 11.24 per cent last month.
Indoo-optimism from the Economic Times:
India may see better growth on expectations of progress on project approvals: Citigroup
India might see better growth prospects mainly on account of expectations of significant progress on project approvals as well as the central bank maintaining a delicate balance between inflation and growth, says a Citigroup report.
The report has been prepared after meeting more than 150 institutional investors across all geographies.
The Financial Express sounds a contrarian note:
Economic growth rate in India weak, prospects for 2014 poor: Moody’s
Monetary policy over past 3 years was at best ineffective and at worst counterproductive: Moody’s
Thailand next, with the Bangkok Post:
Suthep calls mass protest for Sunday
Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban has called another mass protest for this Sunday to pressure caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to step down.
The rally is scheduled ahead of the party-list candidacy registration, which opens on Monday at the Thai-Japanese sports stadium in the Din Daeng area.
The announcement came hours after the prime minister yesterday reaffirmed that she would not quit.
China next, with hopes from People’s Daily:
China expresses hope ahead of Sino-U.S. commerce meeting
China has expressed hope that an upcoming bilateral trade meeting with the United States will lead to relaxed restrictions of technical exports to China and better cooperation on intellectual property protection.
The 24th Session of China-U.S. Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) is expected to take place from Dec. 19 to Dec. 20 in Beijing. It will be co-chaired by Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman.
SINA English raises the price:
China interest rates likely to rise: Zhou
China’s borrowing costs will have a tendency to rise once controls on interest rates are lifted due to buoyant demand for funds, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China, said on Monday.
Zhou said in an interview with Caijing magazine that elevated interest rates will be a “unique trait” of China’s economy as rapid development in the world’s second-largest growth engine keeps borrowing costs high.
Global Times permeates:
Govt to relax cross-border yuan rules
China will further loosen control on cross-border yuan direct investment in an effort to boost more of such investment, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said in a statement on Monday.
In cross-border yuan direct investment, overseas investors (including those from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao) can use yuan obtained legally from overseas to invest in the mainland by setting up companies, increasing investment, or participating in mergers and acquisitions of mainland firms, the statement said.
Want China Times inflates:
Bubbles forming in Chinese economy: Alan Greenspan
China’s banking system may start to see the same problems as that of the US as bubbles are already forming in the Chinese economy, says former US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan.
Greenspan made the comments via video conference from New York on Monday during an economic forum held in Beijing by China-based internet technology company NetEase. The economist, who headed the Fed between 1987 and 2006, said one of the suggestions delivered at the Communist Party’s third plenum last month was a move towards private banking, which could have both positive and negative impacts.
Greenspan, 87, said China is progressing closer to the US financial system and there is “no doubt” that bubbles are beginning to emerge.
Quartz craves:
China’s growing taste for chocolate is making it more expensive for everyone
The world has been running a global chocolate deficit for a few months now, gobbling up more cocoa than Africa, which produces the vast majority of the world’s supply, can produce. And that’s likely just the beginning of the problem.
Global cocoa supplies are expected to trail demand through 2018, which would mark the longest supply shortfall in over 50 years, according to Bloomberg. While that doesn’t necessarily mean there will be a chocolate shortage—there’s plenty left over from previous cocoa harvests to fill the gap—it’s probably going to push cocoa prices up significantly over the next few years. Prices could jump as much as 14% next year alone, according to Bloomberg estimates.
SINA English sounds a populist note:
Chinese people support outlawing officials’ extravagance
A recent survey revealed that more than 90 percent of Chinese people say they support a bill outlawing waste of government funds on extravagance by officials.
The survey, published in Tuesday’s China Youth Daily, was conducted by the newspaper on the mobile portal website 3g.qq.com.
Japan next, and profitable news from Jiji Press:
Japan Brokerage Industry Enjoys 10-Fold Net Profit Jump
Combined net profits at brokerage firms across Japan in April-September soared 10.3-fold from a year earlier to 597,936 million yen, the highest level for any fiscal first half since comparable data began in 1993, the Japan Securities Dealers Association said Tuesday.
On the back of the upbeat stock market, 213, or about 85 pct, of the 252 firms posted net profits.
Jiji Press provides the perfect bridge to. . .
LDP Lawmakers Call for N-Reactor Construction, Rebuilding
A group of lawmakers belonging to Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Tuesday complied draft proposals calling on the government to clarify the need to build new nuclear power plants, add new reactors at existing plants and rebuild aging reactors.
The group wants to reflect the proposals in a new basic energy program the government is mapping out with the aim of obtaining cabinet approval next month.
Fukushimapocalypse Now!
First, from NHK WORLD:
Democratic Party criticizes govt.’s energy policy
Members of the opposition Democratic Party have harshly criticized a government draft energy policy designed to retain nuclear energy as an important basic source of electricity.
One member said it is irresponsible to restart nuclear reactors while there is nowhere to dispose of high-level nuclear waste.
Another said nuclear power is not low-cost energy, if the costs of decommissioning reactors and compensation after nuclear disasters are taken into account.
The Asahi Shimbun compensates:
Plan in works to ease TEPCO’s cleanup burden
The government plans to reduce the financial burden of Tokyo Electric Power Co. by allocating gains from future sales of TEPCO shares for cleaning up Fukushima nuclear disaster areas, sources said.
The move is bound to stoke controversy as leftover assets from government-sponsored corporate rehabilitation have traditionally gone into state coffers.
The Japan Times does a presser:
Media get first tour of fish radiation check process
Explanations satisfy some but fail to give total picture, dispel all fear
With the continued flow of radioactive water into the sea from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 plant, consumers at home and abroad are concerned about the safety of seafood around Japan.
To ease such concerns and demonstrate how fisheries products are being monitored, the Fisheries Agency held a media tour last week to a research facility in Onjuku, Chiba Prefecture, that attracted 36 participants, most of them foreign journalists and embassy officials.
NHK WORLD seeks belated assistance:
Technologies sought to remove nuclear fuel debris
Japanese nuclear engineers are asking for technologies from home and abroad that can remove fuel debris from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant.
In 2020 or later, Japan aims to start removing fuel from the 3 reactors that suffered meltdowns in the March 2011 disaster. Removing fuel debris is a core part of the work to decommission the plant, which will reportedly take 30 to 40 years.
NHK WORLD tackles a hot topic:
Ministers discuss high-level nuclear waste dump
Japan’s cabinet ministers held their first talks on the contentious topic of finding a site for the disposal of high-level nuclear waste. The industry and science ministers were among the participants at Tuesday’s meeting.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants the government to take the initiative on the issue. Suga said the relevant government bodies should closely coordinate to prevent the nuclear waste issue from being put off for future generations to deal with.
The Mainichi counts bodies:
Fukushima nuclear evacuation-related deaths surpass prefecture’s quake, tsunami toll
The number of Fukushima Prefecture residents who have died in connection with prolonged evacuation from areas hit by the prefecture’s nuclear disaster stood at 1,605 as of Nov. 30, topping the 1,603 deaths in the prefecture caused directly by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, prefectural government data has shown.
The figure far exceeds the 919 indirect deaths from the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995. As officials are still collating data, the number is expected to rise further, bringing the harsh circumstances faced by nuclear disaster evacuees into sharp focus.
The Asahi Shimbun gives us a dual use headline equally fitting in either of our daily compendia:
State secrets law raises concern about safety of nuclear power plants
There is growing concern that the government may be tempted to keep sensitive information on the safety of nuclear power plants under wraps once the state secrets protection law goes into force.
Experts cite the government’s secretiveness that hindered access to U.S. contingency plans on how to respond to a total power failure resulting from a terrorist strike against a nuclear power plant even before disaster struck the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant nearly three years ago.
The Japan Times finds fault:
Fault under reactor to be checked once more
The Nuclear Regulation Authority may send experts to the Tsuruga nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture to further study a geologic fault that the NRA determined in May to be active, sources said.
The NRA commissioners will discuss the issue during their regular meeting Wednesday. The purpose of the on-site investigation would be to check whether there are grounds to revise the NRA’s judgment on the fault running beneath reactor No. 2.
The Globe and Mail gives us another other fuels/other problems headline:
Ontario court revives Chevron Amazon pollution case
The Ontario Court of Appeal has revived the hopes of a group of Ecuadorean villagers trying to seize Canadian assets from Chevron Corp. to satisfy a multi-billion-dollar judgment against the oil giant in their country over pollution in the Amazon.
In a decision released Tuesday, the latest move in the 20-year saga of what may be the biggest environmental lawsuit in the world, the appeal overturned a May ruling by Ontario Superior Court Justice David Brown. Justice Brown found that Ontario courts had jurisdiction over the case against Chevron but still granted a stay in the action, concluding that Chevron Canada Ltd.’s assets were not directly owned by San-Ramon, Calif.-based Chevron Corp.
EUbusiness gives us our final headline:
Two insecticides a risk for human nervous system
The EU warned Tuesday that two widely used insecticides, one of which has been implicated in catastrophic bee population decline, may pose a risk to human health by harming brain development.
The neonicotinoid insecticides acetamiprid and imidacloprid “may affect the developing human nervous system,” the European Food Safety Authority said.
This marked the first time such a link has been made with the neonicotinoid family of pesticides, three of which the European Union restricted earlier this year on concerns they were causing a dramatic fall in bee numbers and so threatened food crop pollination.
