Our collection of economic, political, and environmental events — plus Fukushimapocalypse Now! — begins with the realization of the inevitable, via The Guardian:
China surpasses US as world’s largest trading nation
Beijing describes 2013 figures as ‘a landmark milestone’ as annual trade in goods passes the $4tn mark for the first time
China became the world’s largest trading nation in 2013, overtaking the US in what Beijing described as “a landmark milestone” for the country.
China’s annual trade in goods passed the $4tn (£2.4tn) mark for the first time last year according to official data, after exports from the world’s second largest economy rose 7.9% to $2.21tn and imports rose 7.3% to $1.95tn.
The Hill compromises on the backs of the poorest:
Hoyer says House Democrats are ready to swallow $9 billion in food stamp cuts
A bipartisan proposal to cut food stamps by $9 billion would likely pass the lower chamber with support from Democrats, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said this week.
“If that is the figure, and if other matters that are still at issue can be resolved, I think the bill will probably pass, and it will pass with Democratic — some Democratic — support,” Hoyer said Thursday during the taping of C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” program, which will air Sunday. “Not, certainly, universal Democratic support. … But I think it will pass.”
Bipartisan negotiators from both chambers are said to be nearing a deal on a farm bill that would include roughly $9 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps.
The Guardian hits a new low:
Number of Americans looking for work at lowest level since 1970s
Unemployment rate falls to 6.7% but only 74,000 jobs added
Big rise in number of people dropping out of jobs market
Participation rate at lowest level for 40 years
The recovery in the US jobs market came to a grinding halt in December as businesses added just 74,000 new jobs, the lowest rise since January 2011.
The report from the US Department of Labor shocked economists on Friday who had been expecting the number to increase by at least 200,000. The report said the unemployment rate had dropped to to 6.7% in December, but the fall was explained almost entirely by people giving up on their search for work.
Only 62.8% of the adult workforce participated in the jobs market in December, down 0.2 percentage points from the previous month. It was the lowest participation rate – the number of people employed or actively looking for work – since the 1970s.
Calling out crucial detail by My Budget 360:
Low wage capitalism with a dab of cronyism: Of job sectors with the highest growing raw number of positions 9 out of 10 will pay $35,000 a year or less with little to non-existent benefits.
There was a big miss with the latest employment report. The addition of 74,000 jobs produced the weakest employment report going back to January of 2011. Yet part of this is not a surprise given the weak retail sales over the holidays at the expense of cash strapped American consumers. If you dig deep into the data you find a continuing pattern of low wage employment taking over the nation. This trend is accelerating as wealth inequality reaches record proportions.
When the Great Recession struck many good paying jobs were washed away in a bathtub of corporate financialization that has truly set the country on a fast track to economic inequality. Austerity for the public and corporate welfare for Wall Street. Even the “Wolf of Wall Street” still lives in a multi-million dollar home in California while fleeced investors take a walk down memory lane. Low wage jobs are here to stay. This might be stunning for older Americans but young Americans are faced with this once the minted college degree paid by debt is picked up. What does it say that the vast majority of the top 10 job sectors in America will pay $35,000 or less?
Reuters invests:
China’s Fuyao Glass to invest $200 million in GM’s former plant in Ohio
China’s largest automotive glass supplier Fuyao Glass Industry Co. will invest $200 million to set up a manufacturing facility at General Motors’ former assembly plant in Ohio.
Fuyao Glass will create 800 jobs at the Moraine, Ohio plant over three years after the start of production at the end of 2015, according to a statement from the Ohio governor’s office.
The investment will be the largest ever made by a Chinese company in Ohio, according to the statement.
New Europe names:
Obama nominates former Bank of Israel head as Fed vice chair, Brainard also gets Fed nod
President Barack Obama intends to nominate Stanley Fischer to be vice chairman of the Federal Reserve.
Fischer is a former head of the Bank of Israel. He would succeed Janet Yellen, who’s succeeding Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.
Fischer is a dual citizen of the United States and Israel. He’s considered a leading expert on monetary policy. He was a long-time professor at MIT, and Bernanke was one of his students.
The Los Angeles Times defines:
The rich are different — they still get interest-only mortgages
Few of the nontraditional home loans that triggered the financial crisis are still available, and lenders will have even more reason to avoid them now that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s definition of presumably safe and sound mortgages is in effect.
But even though the CFPB’s so-called qualified mortgage standard became official on Friday, one type of loan it excludes — the interest-only mortgage — will remain a common offering for a certain category of borrower: well-off buyers of expensive homes.
Many banks that lend in high-end California markets plan to keep making these loans for affluent clients who want them. Often these are self-employed people capable of maintaining fat bank accounts while making sizable down payments, borrowers the banks say could afford traditional loans but want to maximize their cash available for other investments.
Boing Boing trades:
Trans-Pacific Partnership: how the US Trade Rep is hoping to gut Congress with absurd lies
The US Trade Representative is pushing Congress hard for “Trade Promotion Authority,” which would give the President’s representatives the right to sign treaties like the Trans-Pacific Partnership without giving Congress any chance to oversee and debate the laws that America is promising to pass. With “Trade Promotion Authority” (also called “fast track”), Congress’s only role in treaties would be to say “yes” or “no” to whatever the US Trade Rep negotiated — so if the USTR papered over a bunch of sweetheart deals for political cronies with a single provision that politicians can’t afford to say no to, that’ll be that.
Not coincidentally, the TPP is one long sweetheart deal with a couple of political sweeteners that no Congresscritter can afford to kill.
The USTR’s push for Trade Promotion Authority contains some of the stupidest, easy-to-debunk lies I’ve ever read. Either the Obama Administration figures that Congress is thicker than pigshit, or the USTR drafted this to give tame Congresscritters cover for selling out the people they represent to the corporations that fund their campaigns.
Busted by BBC News:
Alcoa and joint venture partner to pay $384m in Bahrain bribery case
The aluminium giant Alcoa and a joint venture partner will pay $384m (£234m) to settle a bribery investigation by US authorities.
The Department of Justice (DoJ) said Alcoa World Alumina (AWA) had admitted its involvement in a “corrupt international underworld”. AWA pleaded guilty to bribing officials in Bahrain through a middleman in London.
The bribes occurred between 2004 and 2009, and amounted to $9.5m.
Off to Canada with CBC News:
Canada loses nearly 46,000 jobs in December
Unemployment rate up 0.3 percentage points to 7.2%, dollar drops below 92 cents US
Canada lost 45,900 jobs in December, pushing the unemployment rate up 0.3 percentage points to 7.2 per cent as more people looked for work. The monthly loss means Canada’s economy only added 102,000 jobs for all of 2013, Statistics Canada said Friday.
The poor showing surprised economists, a consensus of whom polled by Bloomberg were expecting a small gain of about 14,000 jobs during the month.
Britain next with angst from the London Telegraph:
3.2 million think there is ‘no point’ saving for old age as it will be swallowed by care bills
Threat to Coalition’s overhaul of the care system as study suggests 3.2 million over-50s have given up saving for old age believing it will only be taken to cover care
Social care will be a key battleground at the next election as the Coalition introduced its new model for paying for elderly care.
More than three million middle aged and retired people have effectively given up saving for their old age believing there is “no point” because it will only be taken away to pay for care, research shows.
Total-ly frackin’ with BBC News:
French oil giant Total to invest in UK shale gas
French oil and gas company Total is to invest in the UK’s shale gas industry, it is to be announced on Monday.
Total will be the first of the so-called “oil majors” to invest in shale gas in the UK, the BBC has confirmed.
The British Geological Survey estimates there may be 1,300 trillion cubic feet of shale gas present in the north of England.
But the process to extract shale gas – called “fracking” – has proved controversial.
The London Telegraph tallies up:
Cost of swap scandal has tripled, says regulator
FCA figures show the average cost of settling rate swap mis-selling claims has tripled since the regulator began publishing data tracking the compensation process
The average cost to Britain’s major banks to compensate smaller businesses mis-sold interest rate hedging products has tripled in the last five months, highlighting the escalating cost of what could become one of the country’s most expensive financial scandals.
The average cost of a settling a claim of interest rate swap mis-selling exceeded £150,000 last month, more than triple the average when the data was first published by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) back in August.
Whilst The Guardian admonishes:
Stop EU citizens travelling to UK in search of work, says Labour
Chuka Umunna calls for reform of freedom of movement rules to ban skilled workers taking low-skilled jobs in richer EU states
A change to one of the founding principles of the EU – freedom of movement – should be introduced to prevent EU citizens travelling to Britain in search of a job, the shadow business secretary, Chuka Umunna, has said.
As a leading European commissioner accused the British government of peddling myths about migrants, Umunna said highly skilled EU citizens should be banned from taking low-skilled jobs in Britain.
On to Sweden and airborne outsourcing with TheLocal.no:
Swedish union ‘impotent’ in Norwegian staff shuffle
Norwegian’s Sweden-based cabin crew, recently moved to a staffing company, have complained that their Swedish union does not have the clout to protect them against the budget airline and the unspoken threat of losing their jobs.
Days before Christmas, Norwegian announced that 52 cabin crew in Sweden would be let go. They would continue working for Norwegian, but via staffing firm Proffice.
“All Proffice employees are now scared, we are no longer employed by an airline. When they say jump, we have to say ‘How high?’,” a cabin crew member, who wanted to remain anonymous, told The Local. “We are all pissed at the union and the fact that they own shares in the staffing firm makes us feel that they aren’t listening to us. It’s very frustrating; from year to year they are giving us worse conditions.”
Intolerance via TheLocal.se:
Teen politician assaulted after immigration speech
A 16-year-old member of the Social Democrat party youth wing was assaulted in Malmö on Thursday by two adult men who kicked her, spat at her and called her “feminist pussy” after she made a speech on immigration.
“They called me disgusting feminist pussy and kneed me. They were tall and big and had short thick jackets and had totally shaved heads,” she told the local Sydsvenskan daily.
“They said I was an obnoxious “Sosse” and if they saw me again they would kill me,” she said, referring to a common term of derision for members of the Social Democrats.
Germany next, an THAT issue again from TheLocal.de:
‘Jobless migrants must get German benefits’
The EU Commission believes Germany must make it easier for immigrants to claim unemployment benefit, according to reports on Friday. It comes as a poll shows support for the EU is at a record high in Germany.
An EU Commission statement referring to a lawsuit at the European Court and seen by the Süddeutsche Zeitung states Germany can not deny Hartz IV unemployment benefits to immigrants who come to the country without a job.
The statement was made in the case of a 24-year-old Romanian woman and her son who have lived in Germany since 2010. The woman’s local job centre in Leipzig refused to give her Hartz IV and she took the legal action.
Deutsche Welle gives a thumbs up:
Ratings agency S&P affirms Germany’s top creditworthiness
US ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has confirmed that Germany’s creditworthiness leaves nothing to be desired. The assessment was based on an analysis of the country’s competitiveness and budgetary policy.
S&P on Friday affirmed Germany’s excellent creditworthiness, giving it a triple-A rating once again and adding that the outlook for Europe’s biggest economy was stable and there would probably be no reason to change its rating any time soon.
Standard and Poor’s specifically mentioned Germany’s high level of competitiveness – coupled with shrewd budgetary policy.
TheLocal.de accommodates:
Minister: Taxpayers will fund 32-hour week
The new family minister has called for the introduction of a 32-hour working week for parents of young children, stating her plan would be funded by taxpayers.
Manuela Schwesig said on Friday that mothers and fathers with children under the age of three should not work the current 40-hour week.
“I want both parents to reduce the amount of time they work,” the Social Democrat (SPD) minister told Bild. “The economy must be more flexible and give parents, who reduce their working hours for their family, good career opportunities.”
A social indicator from TheLocal.de:
Alcoholism in Germany rises by a third
The number of alcoholics in Germany has increased by more than one third to almost two million, with under-25s being particularly affected, according to a study on Thursday.
Research from Munich health research institute IFT released on Thursday showed 1.8 million people in Germany were alcoholics – up by 36 percent from 1.3 million in 2006. A further 1.6 million drink a lot although are not addicted. In total 7.4 million people drink more than the recommended amount.
The study also looked into smoking addiction and found 5.6 million Germans were addicted to tobacco and 319,000 were dependent on illegal drugs.
Spiegel resurrects:
Berlin Blunder: Google Maps Brings Back ‘Adolf Hitler Square’
Online mapping service Google Maps temporarily mislabeled a square in central Berlin with its former Nazi-era name: Adolf Hitler Square. Google couldn’t explain the error when contacted by reporters but said they were looking into the matter.
Anyone using Google Maps on Thursday evening could have been treated to an unfortunate trip down memory lane. The popular online mapping service mislabeled Theodor-Heuss-Platz, in the western Charlottenburg district of Berlin, with the name it held from 1933 to 1945: Adolf-Hitler-Platz.
Google couldn’t explain the error when approached by German mass-circulation daily B.Z., which first reported the story, but a Google representative said they were looking into the matter. The square had been returned to its current name by 9 p.m. on Thursday night.
Same era, another manifestation from TheLocal.de:
Guillotine used for anti-Nazi siblings turns up
The guillotine used to execute Nazi resistance siblings Sophie and Hans Scholl in 1943 appears to have been found in southern Germany after being thought lost for decades, a museum said Friday.
The blood-stained device which had a some 15-kilo blade was identified after 18 months of research at the Bavarian National Museum in Munich where it had been in storage for around 40 years without anyone realising, a museum official said.
Sybe Wartena, the museum’s head of folklore, said a couple of factors indicated it was “with great likelihood” the one used in the execution of the Scholls, members of the White Rose student resistance group, who were detained after distributing flyers at a city university.
On to France and complications from TheLocal.fr:
Hollande ‘affair’ will cloud policy shift: media
French newspapers warned Saturday that President Francois Hollande’s alleged affair with an actress risked overshadowing his much-anticipated announcement of a new tack in efforts to kindle growth and create jobs.
Whilst largely defending the unmarried Hollande’s right to a private life, national and regional dailies admitted the hundreds of journalists at his bi-annual press conference on Tuesday will only have one question in mind.
The French president, who lives with his partner Valerie Trierweiler, has not denied the relationship with 41-year-old actress Julie Gayet but reacted furiously to Friday’s publication of the allegation in Closer magazine.
A pleasant Swiss surprise from TheLocal.ch:
New poll shows majority reject immigrant quotas
Over half of Swiss voters oppose a controversial plan by right-wing populists to reimpose immigration quotas for European Union citizens, a poll showed on Friday ahead of a referendum.
A total of 55 percent of those surveyed said they were against the measure on the table in a February 9 plebiscite, according to the survey released by public broadcaster SRG.
Thirty-seven percent backed it and eight percent were yet to make up their mind, the poll by the GfS Bern institute showed.
The figures echoed a survey last month, but GfS said it was too early for opponents to cry victory, given that the proposal had found fertile ground.
Not-so-pleasant numbers from TheLocal.ch:
Expats hardest hit again as jobless rate rises
Despite economic growth, the unemployment rate continued to rise in Switzerland last month, jumping to 3.5 percent from 3.2 percent in November, with foreigners responsible for most of the increase, government figures showed on Friday.
The share of expats out of work leapt to 6.9 percent in December, up from 6.2 percent the previous month and 6.5 percent a year earlier, a report from the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) said.
Foreigners accounted for almost half (48.3 percent) of those officially unemployed, the figures showed. The figures followed a well-established pattern: when the number of people without work in Switzerland expands, expats are hardest hit.
Spain next, with dependents from ANSAmed:
Crisis: 80% of young Spaniards depend on their families
60% willing to emigrate in search of jobs
Eight in 10 Spaniards aged 18-24 believe they will be forced to work menial jobs in spite of their qualifications, and 60% are willing to emigrate in search of work, according to a Reina Sofia Center survey released Wednesday.
Also according to the survey of 1,000 respondents, 80% said they are being supported by their families in spite of their job training, 70% blamed the length and severity of the recession on government and politicians, 20% said the situation won’t improve for the next two years at least, and 36% said the situation will only get worse.
Take a number with thinkSPAIN:
Ikea in Valencia receives 100,000 applicants for 400 jobs
JUST one month after advertising a recruitment drive for its new store in Alfafar (Valencia), Swedish flat-pack chain Ikea has been swamped with 100,000 CVs.
Within the first 48 hours, the global furniture giant received 20,000 applications, which crashed the server twice due to the sheer volume.
The company is offering 400 jobs and, so far, it has 250 applicants per position.
Ikea initially opened a month-long window for applications on December 2, due to run until New Year’s Eve, but in light of the server crash on December 4, the multinational’s IT department switched the server for a more powerful one and extended the candidature period to January 5.
In this time, 100,000 people have applied.
El País goes for the gold:
Social Security turns the screws to take in one billion euros more
Non-salary benefits such as pension plans currently exempt will now count in computation of contributions
The Spanish Social Security system plans to take in an estimated billion euros more a year by including a series of non-wage remunerations provided by companies to employees such as contributions to pension plans and meal tickets that were previously exempt, or partly exempt, in the computation of contributions to the system.
According to a decree published in the official gazette (BOE) on December 21 of last year, employers will have to pay 30 percent of the value of such non-wage supplements and workers 6 percent to the Social Security system.
Other items also now included in the computation of contributions include employee health insurance plans, school and nursery fees and company shares.
Austerian health practice, via the Portugal News:
Patient diagnosed with serious cancer after waiting two years for consultation
An investigation has been opened into the case of a woman who waited two years for a vital medical examination, to determine whether or not she had cancer, and who found out, when she finally underwent the test, that not only was she suffering from the disease but it was at an advanced stage.
The patient, who is in her sixties, initially underwent a routine colorectal cancer (or bowel cancer) screening, the results of which came back positive.
Her case was immediately forwarded to the Amadora-Sintra Hospital, but it took a year for her to be called for a consultation. It took a further 12 months for the woman to have the essential colonoscopy which would confirm the presence of the disease.
Off to Rome with TheLocal.it:
Italy to sell post office stake in bid to raise cash
Italy is planning to sell off a share of up to 40 percent in the state postal service by the end of the year, a junior minister said on Friday, as the government bids to drum up much-needed cash.
“The listing of Poste Italiane on the stock exchange is plausible by the end of the year,” Antonio Catricala from the economic development ministry was quoted by Italian media as saying.
“The majority stake will remain with the state and 30-40 percent of the group will be privatised,” he said. The government held an initial meeting on Thursday on the operation, which Italian media said could raise around €4.0 billion for the state.
After the jump, the latest Greek grief, Cypriot woes, Turkish troubles, Ukrainian violence, Latin American trade deals, Indian blowback, Thai angst, China does the market, Japanese troubles, and the latest Fukushimapocalypse Now! . . .
Our first Greek item, a plea from ANA-MPA:
FinMin calls on troika to show realism in its demands, in FT interview
The change of law, which provides that mass layoffs in private companies must be approved by the government, cannot be approved by the Greek parliament, Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said in an interview with the newspaper Financial Times on Friday.
Stournaras said his government’s shrinking parliamentary majority has made it increasingly difficult to pass tough economic reform measures and called on the troika of international bailout lenders to be more realistic in its demands of Athens. “There are things that can be done and things that cannot be done,” he noted.
He was particularly critical of the troika’s negotiating style, accusing top negotiators – from the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and European Commission – of adopting “a maximalist approach when in Athens that spooked both financial markets and domestic companies, and was risking the country’s nascent economic recovery”.
Europe Online demands:
Greece must stay the course on reform, says German foreign minister
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Friday praised Greece for “staying the course” on economic reforms, and emphasized that pressing problems such as youth unemployment remained.
“I have ascertained that the government is determined to stay the course, notwithstanding the political cost and the risk involved,” he said after talks with Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.
He said that despite the country’s persistence in pursuing economic reform, pressing issues such as youth unemployment – which reached a staggering 57.9 per cent in October – had yet to be overcome.
Kathimerini English dangles a carrot:
Government reviews reforms as Berlin hints at more aid
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and his coalition partner Evangelos Venizelos discussed pending reforms pledged to the troika over the weekend as it remained unclear when foreign inspectors will return to Athens.
Troika officials are said to be frustrated over a lack of reform progress and may not return next week, meaning decisions on the release of further rescue aid loans will be put back.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Saturday that Berlin could provide more aid if necessary.
“If Greece meets all its obligations by the end of 2015, achieving a primary budget surplus, and still needs financial help, we would be willing to do something,” he said.
Greek Reporter makes the collar:
Greek Scandal Bank Ex-Chief Caught in Turkey
As a probe into bad loans given out by the state-run Hellenic Postbank (TT) has allegedly discovered a widespread ring of officials handing out money to businessmen who pocketed it, the institution’s former President, Angelos Filippides was arrested in Turkey where he was caught because he kept using his mobile phone to call Greek TV stations to defend himself.
An arrest warrant against Angelos Filippidis was turned into an international one on Friday, and Turkish authorities tracked down and arrested him in Istanbul the same day, in cooperation with Greek authorities.
Filippides had been all over Greek news for days on TV, saying he would return to explain what had happened to the bank when he was heading it, but investigators said they’ve uncovered a raft of evidence that the bank was used as a kind of personal ATM for the already rich and connected who got loans without guarantees or collateral and didn’t repay it.
Kathimerini English indicts:
Ex-minister calls for probe of army purchases
The general secretary of the Justice Ministry, Giorgos Sourlas, has asked prosecutors to investigate armed forces procurements over the past decade following indications that supplies have been purchased at hugely inflated prices, it emerged over the weekend.
According to claims by Sourlas, a former health minister, a pyrolysis machine acquired in 2002 for the country’s armed forces was purchased at more than double its estimated value, suggesting that officials benefited from the overpricing.
The machine – a vat which uses a combination of fire and electrical current to remove worn rubber from tank tracks – was purchased for just over 6 million euros, more than double the original estimated value of the tank, which was 2.8 million euros, according to Sourlas. Shortly after its acquisition, the equipment was deemed to be in need of repair and another 858,317 euros was disbursed for maintenance, Sourlas said.
From EnetEnglish.gr, a meeting of the minds[?]:
BNP bankrupt Nick Griffin to address Golden Dawn meeting
Declared bankrupt earlier this month, Nick Griffin, who heads the British National Party (BNP), will speak in Athens in support of an appeal by neonazi Golden Dawn to the European Court of Human Rights over what it claims is a government’s crackdown on it
BNP leader Nick Griffin laughs while holding a box of eggs in a pub in June 2009 (Photo: Reuters) BNP leader Nick Griffin laughs while holding a box of eggs in a pub in June 2009 (Photo: Reuters) The leader of a British far-right party who was declared bankrupt last week will be in Athens on Friday to speak in support of neonazi Golden Dawn.
Nick Griffin, who heads the British National Party (BNP) and is a member of the European Parliament, is scheduled to address a Golden Dawn press conference to present the party’s plans to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights over what it claims is a government’s crackdown on it.
Greek Reporter has umbrage:
Golden Dawn Says Terrorists, Corrupt Free
Officials from the Greek neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, whose leaders have been jailed pending trial on charges of running a criminal gang have snapped back at the scandal-ridden government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, the New Democracy Conservative leader and his party, the PASOK Socialists.
Golden Dawn spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris, one of six of the party’s 18 Members of Parliament who were arrested, said the political group is being politically persecuted while “terrorists and crooked politicians,” are getting away scot-free, referring to the escape of two convicted terrorists who walked away from furloughs and a growing scandal in the defense ministry and the Hellenic Postbank.
Supporters of Greece’s far right Golden Dawn party made their voices heard as three party members appealed against accusations of belonging to a criminal group.
Violent intolerance from EnetEnglish.gr:
Iranian man describes how ear was bitten off in racist attack in Athens
Medical efforts to reattach ear failed
Young Iranian migrant who had his ear bitten off in a suspected racist attack says the experience shows him that there is ‘no culture, no love’ in Europe
A young migrant from Iran who says he was the target of a racist attack about two months ago in central Athens has described how one of his assailants bit his ear off.
In a recorded video interview with a international humanitarian aid organisation, the man, who identifies himself as Shaid, said that he was set on by three men dressed in black as he was speaking on the phone near Metaxourgiou Square.
Cyrpus next, and dismal news from ANSAmed:
Crisis: Cyprus, January-October trade deficit down by 28%
Cyprus’ external trade deficit for the period of January-October 2013 declined by 28% or by 1.02 billion euros year on year due to the significant reduction of imports, amid the continued contraction of the economy, as CNA reports.
According to preliminary figures released by the national Statistical Service, total imports/ arrivals (covering total imports from third countries and arrivals from other Member States) in January-October 2013 amounted to 3,976.3 million euros as compared to 4,853.1 million euros in January-October 2012.
Trukjey next, with a crackdown from Deutsche Welle:
Erdogan pushing Internet censorship forward
The Turkish government plans to further tighten its firm grip on the Internet by monitoring user activity and blocking sites for “privacy violations.” Activists are calling this a reaction to anti-government protests.
Turkey’s Family and Social Policy Ministry submitted a bill to parliament this week that would allow authorities to block specific websites and keep a record of users’ Internet activities for up to two years. This represents the latest attempt of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to curb web freedoms.
“Previously, there were a limited number of types of alleged illegal content that could be blocked in Turkey,” said Yaman Akdeniz, a professor of law at Istanbul’s Bilgi University. “For example, child pornography, obscene materials, gambling-related content, encouragement of suicide or encouragement of prostitution and escort websites,” Akdeniz told DW.
Akdeniz explained that now, the government is trying to extend this block to include violations of personal rights and also privacy. “That could include defamation, for example,” he said.
BBC News disavows:
Turkish judges deplore Erdogan government reform plans
Turkey’s top judicial body has condemned government plans to reform it, calling the move unconstitutional.
The Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors – the HSYK – said coming under justice ministry control would undermine its independence.
The reform is being debated in a parliament dominated by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party.
ANSAmed devalues:
Turkey: Lira slide adds pressure to local firms, says Fitch
Fitch Ratings issued a second statement about Turkey in three days, saying a further prolonged decline in the currency would put pressure on Turkish companies’ ratings, as daily Hurriyet online reports.
“Turkish corporates are historically and structurally vulnerable to FX volatility, in part due to currency mismatches between debt, cash flow and under-hedged positions on foreign-currency debt,” the statement release by the agency said.
The Turkish Lira has been under intense pressure since the U.S. Federal Reserve announced it will begin winding down, or tapering, its USD 85 billion-a-month money-printing program and Turkey’s high-level corruption probe has added to that pressure.
And a protest from the Japan Times:
Tens of thousands rally in Turkey in new anti-Erdogan protests
Tens of thousands of Turkish demonstrators took to the streets in the capital Saturday in protest against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government, which has been rocked by a vast corruption probe.
As Erdogan arrived home after a weeklong tour to Asia, about 20,000 protesters gathered at Ankara’s Sihhiye Square, chanting “revolution will clean this filth” and “they are thieves.” Some protesters were also handing out fake dollars with Erdogan’s photo on them.
The corruption scandal implicating close allies of Erdogan has rattled his government to the core and poses the biggest challenge to his 11-year rule.
Deutsche Welle takes us to the Ukraine:
Former Ukrainian interior minister injured in opposition clashes with police
Several people have been injured in clashes between police and protesters outside a Ukrainian court. The demonstrators were protesting a court ruling earlier in the day.
The clashes broke out after police, using tear gas and batons, moved in to break up a couple hundred demonstrators outside of the Kyiv court, which earlier in the day had sentenced three men to six months in jail on charges of having plotted to blow up a statue of Vladimir Lenin near Kyiv’s main airport in 2011.
Ukrainian television broadcast video footage that showed several people being carried off on stretchers to an ambulance.
Among those reported injured was leading opposition figure and former Interior Minister Yuri Lutsenko, who was seen with a large, partially bloodied bandage around his head (photo above).
And off to Latin American, first with a trans-Pacific trade agreement of another sort from the South China Morning Post:
Hong Kong triads work with Mexican drug lords on methamphetamine
Members of 14K and Sun Yee On crime gangs supplying the notorious Sinaloa cartel with raw materials to produce ‘Ice’ as demand surges
MercoPress talks trade:
Argentina denies it is blame for delay in Mercosur/European Union trade talks
Argentina’s Foreign Ministry refuted an article by Brazilian newspaper Valór Económico reporting that negotiations between Mercosur and the European Union had been delayed by the failure to reach agreement with Argentina over a joint proposal of goods to include in a free trade agreement
“Argentina comprehensively denies the biased article published by Italian agency ANSA (originally by Valór Económico),” the news release opens, proceeding to counter the claim by contending that “the delay of the meeting scheduled for December, as Brazilian Foreign Minister Luiz Alberto Figuereido announced, was down to the request by European Commissioner for Trade Karel De Gucht to Figuereido at the World Trade Organization’s ministerial summit in Bali” Indonesia.
And the Washington Post has a let-down:
Brazil’s oil euphoria hits reality hard
When fields said to hold billions of barrels of oil were discovered off the coast here, exuberant government officials said the deep-sea prize would turn Brazil into a major energy player.
More than six years later, the outlook for Brazil’s oil industry, much like the Brazilian economy itself, is more sobering. Oil production is stagnant, the state-controlled oil company, Petrobras, is hobbled by debt, and foreign oil companies are wary of investing here.
“It’s funny, a few years ago, everybody loved Brazil,” said Roger Tissot, a longtime consultant on Latin American energy. “And now it seems the love is gone.”
MercoPress desists:
Construction of Monsanto plant in north Argentina halted on environmental grounds
A labor appeals court in north-central Argentina ruled that the construction of a Monsanto plant is unconstitutional, halting work on the site. The three judge court ruled 2-1 in favor of the activists who filed a legal appeal against Monsanto’s GMO seed plant on environmental protection grounds in the municipality of Malvinas Argentinas, located in central Cordoba Province.
“We have filed a criminal complaint to inform the prosecutor of certain irregularities in violation of environmental law that have occurred in the heart of the Ministry of the Environment which is involved with authorizations of projects,” said attorney Raúl Montenegro.
The construction at the site has been suspended until an environmental assessment is completed to determine the plant’s future impact on the area. Local newspaper La Voz reported that the environmental study could be completed as soon as early February.
On to India, with umbrage from Firstpost:
Khobragade row: India not so ready to forgive and forget
The political deal allowing Devyani Khobragade to return to India was calculated to give all sides immediate, if temporary closure. But there is no sign, in the short term at least, that India is ready to forgive and forget.
The trust built through the US-India nuclear deal has been squandered recklessly through Manhattan Attorney Preet Bharara’s over reach of justice, and it will take sustained US efforts to mend the rift.
An emotionally spent Khobragade landed in Delhi late on Friday from New York after a battle of nerves over two days that resulted in her effective expulsion from the US hours after she was granted immunity from Bharara’s criminal charges against her.
More from the Times of India:
US could have avoided ‘mini crisis’ in Devyani case, India says
India on Saturday blamed the United States for a “mini crisis” over the arrest and strip search of an Indian envoy, and said more work was needed to repair ties a day after the withdrawal of diplomats seemed to draw a line under the row.
Devyani Khobragade, 39, who was India’s deputy consul-general in New York, was arrested in December on charges of visa fraud and lying to US authorities about what she paid her housekeeper. Khobragade’s arrest and strip-search provoked protests in India and dealt a serious blow to US efforts to strengthen ties.
Foreign minister Salman Khurshid said the United States should have warned senior officials visiting Washington a day before Khobragade’s arrest by state department security in December.
Thailand next and an impotency declaration from SINA English:
Gov’t can control situation during “Bangkok shutdown”: Yingluck
The government is capable of controlling the situation during the planned “Bangkok shutdown” by protesters next Monday, caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said here on Friday, adding people should continue living their lives in the city as usual.
Yingluck said more than 20,000 police and military would be deployed in important areas in Bangkok on that day to maintain peace and order.
She called on all parties to look for ways out of the political crisis through the stage of the government’s reform council, which will operate in parallel with the Feb. 2 election.
Bangkok Post has a reason:
Shooting at Khok Wua injures seven
Published: 11 Jan 2014 at 04.30 Online news: Local News Seven people were injured in a shooting near the People’s Democratic Reform Committee’s (PDRC) rally site early Saturday, police sources said.
The shooting between two groups of people took place near the Government Lottery Office and at Khok Wua intersection on Ratchadamnoen Avenue, the sources said.
The incident took place around 2.45am, according to the sources.
It was unclear who was behind the shooting and the sources could not confirm that the seven people were anti-government protesters or PRDC security guards.
Deutsche Welle warns:
‘Escalating protests may trigger Thailand coup’
As anti-government protesters vow to “shut down” Bangkok from Monday, analyst Rajiv Biswas fears an escalation of violence in Thailand could trigger a military coup as the army attempts to stabilize things.
Suthep Thaugsuban, leader of the anti-government protests that have rocked the capital, said he would launch a “Bangkok shutdown” on January 13 in a bid to scuttle a general election set for February 2 and force Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her cabinet to resign.
The protesters, who accuse Yingluck of being a puppet of her self-exiled brother and former premier, Thaksin Shinawatra, reject the poll, arguing they want an appointed “people’s council” to oversee reforms before any future vote. In the process they have staged some of the largest street demonstrations in Thai history.
And Channel NewsAsia Singapore counters:
Thai Red Shirt activists plan rallies to counter Bangkok shutdown
Thailand’s pro-government Red Shirt activists are planning to hold rallies at various locations in the country this weekend in a prelude to their stand against the anti-government protesters’ planned Bangkok shutdown on January 13, Xinhua news agency reported.
On Monday, Red Shirt members will hold a countrywide movement and set up four major stages in Chiang Mai, Ubon Ratchthani, Khon Kaen and Ayutthaya but no activities will be held in Bangkok.
While the Toronto Globe and Mail covers blowback:
Thai beer loses esteem after remarks by heiress
It was probably inevitable in a country so obsessed with food and drink that Thailand’s political turmoil would spill over into beer.
Singha beer, made by the oldest brewery in Thailand, is a national icon and a staple of Thai restaurants around the world. But in recent weeks it has also become a target of an informal boycott by Thais who are angry that a member of the wealthy family behind the beer company is one of the leaders of anti-government demonstrators who are trying to scuttle elections planned for next month.
Chitpas Bhirombhakdi, 28, the beer heiress and a major player in the Bangkok protests, was quoted last month in a widely circulated article saying that many Thais lack a “true understanding” of democracy, “especially in the rural areas.”
On to China with a total from SINA English:
China 2013 trade surplus up 12.8% to $259.75 bn: govt
China’s annual trade surplus reached $259.75 billion in 2013, up 12.8 percent from the previous year, official data showed Friday.
Exports from the world’s second-largest economy rose 7.9 percent to $2.21 trillion, while imports increased 7.3 percent to $1.95 trillion, the General Administration of Customs announced.
The country’s total trade in goods for last year came to $4.16 trillion, an increase of 7.6 percent, just below the government’s target of eight percent.
The Japan Times adds context:
China trade soars globally but falls 5.1% with Japan
China’s trade with Japan fell 5.1 percent in 2013 to $312.5 billion, down for the second straight year, the General Customs Administration said Friday.
The decline was even worse than the 3.9 percent contraction in 2012 and reflected the lingering effects of the Senkaku Islands territorial row.
China’s trade with Japan fell for the first time in three years in 2012 owing to a consumer boycott sparked by territorial dispute in the East China Sea.
The Global Times coverts:
China to accelerate yuan’s capital account convertibility
China will step up efforts to make its Renminbi currency, the yuan, convertible under the capital account this year, the country’s forex regulator vowed on Saturday.
The State Administration of Foreign Exchange said in a statement following a forex work meeting that accelerating yuan convertibility is one of the major tasks for forex authorities around the country.
They should also facilitate international trade and investment denominated and settled in yuan, guard against impacts of cross-border capital movement and prevent systemic and regional risks.
China Daily diagnoses:
Nation’s oil pipelines riddled with defects, watchdog says
A nationwide overhaul of oil pipelines launched after a fatal explosion in Qingdao, Shandong province, has found hazards in many areas that could lead to similar incidents, according to the country’s top work safety watchdog.
The overhaul was launched after oil leaked into sewage pipes where it exploded to kill 62 people in Qingdao on Nov 22, and has detected faults such as aging pipes and overlapping pipelines for oil and sewage, said Huang Yi, spokesman for the State Administration of Work Safety.
“Some of the problems are staggering and some hazards are found everywhere,” he said, adding that many oil pipelines are more than 40 years old and suffer from erosion and weakening.
The Global Times covers land use:
Limits set as China pushes urbanization
As China bets heavily on urbanization to bolster the economy, land officials have underscored the need to maintain a “red line” minimum for arable land and prohibit urbanites from buying rural land and building houses on it.
China will limit land use in cities with over 5 million residents to prevent city expansion from eroding farmland, Jiang Daming, minister of land and resources, said on Friday during a national land meeting.
According to Jiang, China will start demarcating permanent farmland around big cities and gradually introduce the policy nationally to draw a “red line” minimum for farmland in both urban and rural areas.
And South China Morning Post prepares:
Blueprint called for on China’s ambitions in Arctic and Antarctic
Growing presence in the regions has experts calling for the country to draw up strategic blueprint of objectives to calm other nation’s concerns
Beijing needs to clearly define the strategic objectives of its Arctic and Antarctic exploration, as its growing presence in the polar regions has raised international concerns, experts affiliated with government think tanks say.
They said worries over China’s involvement would only grow as Beijing stepped up its efforts in the regions. A blueprint would address the needless confusion, they say.
Want China Times expands:
Beijing to expand its influence to the Black Sea: report
After China gained permission from the Pakistani government to operate its Gwadar Port through the state-run China Overseas Port Holding Company, the Moscow-based Voice of Russia stated that Beijing is ready to construct another deep water harbor on the Crimea peninsula in Ukraine to extend Chinese influence into the Black Sea.
Between 2002 and 2005, China spent about US$200 million constructing Gwadar Port. While the port was owned by the government-owned Gwadar Port Authority after its construction, China Overseas Port Holding Company was granted right of operation in February 2013, allowing China control of sea lines of communication all the way to the Strait of Hormuz on the north coast of Iran. Voice of Russia said 40% of the world’s seaborne oil has to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
About US$10 billion will have to be spent for the construction of the harbor, an oil depot and an economic development zone around it, the report estimated. Hong Kong Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Company under the leadership of 40-year-old Wang Jing is the key investor in the Crimean port. Although Wang denies any relationship with the Chinese government, the Hong Kong-based Mingjing News has reported that his license was issued by the People’s Liberation Army.
On to Japan with a call to up the ante from the Mainichi:
Toyota group union to demand 1st pay-scale hike in 5 years
The federation of labor unions at Toyota Motor Corp. group companies decided Saturday to make a unified demand for a pay-scale hike at the upcoming spring wage talks for the first time since 2009.
The Federation of All Toyota Workers’ Unions at its central committee meeting approved a plan to aim for annual bonuses worth more than five months’ salary, union officials said.
The federation will not specify the amount of the pay-scale hike and will leave the decision to each union, they said.
The Asahi Shimbun challenges:
Anti-whaling activists stage season’s 1st attack against Japanese fleet
Anti-whaling activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society tried to disrupt the operations of Japan’s whaling fleet in Antarctic waters on Jan. 10, the Fisheries Agency said.
It was the first such incident of the season. No injuries or damage were reported by the No. 2 Shonan Maru, a patrol ship with the agency that is there to protect the Japanese whalers.
And the Asahi Shimbun suspects more research corruption:
Researcher: Test data falsified in major Alzheimer’s disease project
The health ministry is investigating suspicions that researchers falsified clinical test data and deleted inconvenient information in a 3.3-billion-yen ($31.5 million) project on treating Alzheimer’s disease.
At least one researcher has acknowledged that numbers were deliberately altered at the Japanese Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (J-ADNI), which is modeled after the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative set up by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Other officials involved in the project cited their own lapses in memory when asked about the suspected data tampering.
Next, Fukushimapocalyyose Now!
The daily disaster from the Asahi Shimbun:
Radiation levels near Fukushima plant boundary 8 times the government standard
Radiation levels around the boundary of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant have risen to eight times the g