Today’s coverage of economics, politics, and the environment commences with a headline from the New York Times:
Patients’ Costs Skyrocket; Specialists’ Incomes Soar
Specialists earn an average of two and often four times as much as primary care physicians in the United States, a differential that far surpasses that in all other developed countries, according to Miriam Laugesen, a professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. That earnings gap has deleterious effects: Only an estimated 25 percent of new physicians end up in primary care, at the very time that health policy experts say front-line doctors are badly needed, according to Dr. Christine Sinsky, an Iowa internist who studies physician satisfaction. In fact, many pediatricians and general doctors in private practice say they are struggling to survive.
Studies show that more specialists mean more tests and more expensive care. “It may be better to wait and see, but waiting doesn’t make you money,” said Jean Mitchell, a professor of health economics at Georgetown University. “It’s ‘Let me do a little snip of tissue’ and then they get professional, lab and facility fees. Each patient is like an ATM machine.”
Booming business from The Wire:
The Denver Broncos’ Playoff Run Has Been Good for Legal Pot Sales
The New England Patriots were warned by head coach Bill Belichick about avoiding the temptation of legal marijuana in Colorado ahead of their big game against the Denver Broncos tomorrow. Patriots fans, on the other hand, seem to be having a blast.
That this year’s NFL postseason has overlapped with both the historic legalization of marijuana in Colorado and a deep playoff run by the Denver Broncos—who earned home-field advantage this season—is a kind coincidence. One result: A happy marriage between football tourism and pot tourism.
According to reports, marijuana shops have been enjoying the crush of out-of-town visitors who, football loyalties notwithstanding, have been embracing Colorado’s new policies. Justin Staley, who owns a shop near the stadium, claims to have hosted hundreds of San Diego Charger fans last week when the Chargers were in town to square off against the Denver Broncos.
The Guardian blows smoke:
Obama says marijuana is a bad habit but minorities are unfairly punished
‘I don’t think it’s more dangerous than alcohol’ says president
Colorado and Washington have decriminalised pot use
“As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life,” he is quoted as saying in a New Yorker magazine article. “I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol.”
The president said he has told his two daughters that smoking marijuana is “a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy”.
However, he said he is concerned that marijuana-related arrests fall far more heavily on minorities than on others. Legalisation of pot should go forward in the states of Colorado and Washington because “it’s important for society not to have a situation in which a large portion of people have at one time or another broken the law and only a select few get punished,” he said.
A ray of sunshine from the Miami Herald:
Florida Legislature may back in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants
Across the Atlantic to Britain with New Europe:
UK wants to impose new ban on Bulgarian, Romanian workers
Workers from Bulgaria and Romania finally have the right to enjoy one of the fundamental freedoms of the European Union – the right to work and to claim unemployment benefits in any EU country – thanks to a lift on a ban that was put in place when the countries joined the EU in 2007. But this could soon change.
According to the UK’s Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, his government is working with several other European governments (Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland) to delay the entitlement of benefits that Bulgarian and Romanian workers can claim when they move from one EU member state to another.
In an interview with the Sunday Times last week, Duncan Smith said the UK is concerned about what he called “benefit tourism” despite a new three-month ban recently imposed by the UK to new EU immigrants.
According to Duncan Smith, there is “a growing groundswell of concern about the [immigration] issue” and Britain is “right in the middle of a large group of nations saying enough is enough”.
The Independent gets real:
Exclusive: ‘Police corruption cannot be eliminated’ admits head of special Met unit following Independent stories
Corruption inside law enforcement agencies is impossible to eliminate, according to the man charged with tackling malpractice inside Scotland Yard.
Detective Chief Superintendent Alaric Bonthron, head of the Metropolitan Police’s Professional Standards Unit, told The Independent the threat from organised crime groups infiltrating the force is “very challenging”. However, he denied the Yard still suffered from the “endemic police corruption” outlined in the leaked report from Operation Tiberius in 2002, extracts of which have been revealed by this newspaper.
The document disclosed that some of Britain’s most notorious crime syndicates were able to infiltrate the Met “at will”, leading to compromised murder investigations, leaks of intelligence and covert informants being identified.
Germany next, and a downturn from BBC News:
Deutsche Bank reports surprise loss as legal costs mount
Deutsche Bank has reported a surprise loss for the fourth quarter of 2013, after releasing its latest results before they were expected.
Overall Deutsche said it posted a pre-tax loss of 1.153bn euros for the final quarter of 2013. The bank said that litigation costs and restructuring had weighed heavily on its financial performance.
Litigation costs mounted up to 623m euros (£950m) for the period, while revenue fell 16%.
And on to Spain with a rebuff from El País:
Catalonia’s plea to endorse independence falls on deaf ears abroad
Region’s network of foreign delegations fails to recruit supporters for the cause
US headquarters moved from New York to Washington in bid to ramp up campaign
The Catalan government’s drive to find international support for its sovereignty plan is running into a wall of silence and rejection. The nationalist premier, Artur Mas of the CiU coalition, needs such endorsement if he finally decides to hold a referendum without permission from Madrid, where the central authorities are arguing that it would be unconstitutional.
That is why Catalonia’s network of foreign delegations has been working double shifts to seek allies in Brussels, France, Britain, the United States and elsewhere.
But so far, the independence drive has met with little sympathy abroad, where silence has been the most common response — so much so that when European Commission President José Manuel Durao Barroso merely acknowledged receipt of a letter from Mas on the issue, the Catalan government hailed it as a resounding success.
TheLocal.es gives in:
Spanish mayor scraps protest-hit street works
The mayor of Spain’s northern city of Burgos on Friday scrapped a costly street redevelopment that sparked a week of spreading protests and scattered violence.
“It is physically impossible to carry out this reform and we have decided to halt the works indefinitely in favour of harmony in the city,” Mayor Javier Lacalle told a news conference.
Thousands of protesters around the country turned out in sympathy with the demonstrators in Burgos, many of them denouncing corruption and Spain’s 26-percent unemployment rate.
From thinkSPAIN, that old time religion:
MEPs slam Spain’s abortion reform as ‘patriarchal’ and ‘fundamentalist Catholic’
NEARLY all European Parliamentary groups have expressed their total rejection of Spain’s abortion law reform, which only allows women to terminate a pregnancy where it is the result of a rape – within just 12 weeks – or where her life is in danger, and does not permit her to do so where the foetus is deformed, however severely.
Social Democrats, Liberals, Ecologists and members of the Unitarian Left are among the MEPs who have called for Spain to scrap its plans to restrict legal abortion.
“If a woman is capable of running the German State, she is capable of making decisions about her own body,” said Dutch Liberal MEP Sophie In’t Veld.
El País does business as usual:
US tech giants dodge Spanish taxman, paying just €1.2m on 2012 profits
Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Yahoo, eBay and Microsoft use fiscal tactics to minimize filings
Large US technology corporations continue to dodge the Spanish taxman through fiscal engineering tactics that channel the profits of their sales in Spain to countries with lower corporate tax rates.
The Spanish affiliates of seven major companies — Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Yahoo, eBay and Microsoft — paid a joint total of just 1,251,608 euros on their 2012 profits derived from their Spanish business activities.
This aggregate figure is not taken from their tax filings but from their annual accounts at the Spanish Business Register, which reflect the money that the companies earmark in a given year for tax on profits.
TheLocal.es shocks:
‘Hair-rising’ electric prices jolt Spaniards
Struggling Spaniards are rebelling against high electricity prices, which have soared by 42 percent since an economic crisis erupted in 2008 reports AFP’s Anna Cuenca.
Buckling under a 26-percent unemployment rate after five years of stop-start recession, many Spaniards battle to pay their electricity bills, the third highest in the European Union after Cyprus and Ireland.
The increase in prices is “hair-raising”, said Cote Romero, coordinator of Platform for a New Energy Model, which unites 270 groups including protesters against economic inequality, leftists, unions, cooperatives and ecological organisations.
Some 1.5 million homes were left without electricity in 2012 for failing to pay bills, she said, leaving families with no hot water or cooking facilities.
Italy next and a Bunga Bunga comeback from BBC News:
Italy reform deal puts Berlusconi back centre stage
Italy’s controversial ex-PM Silvio Berlusconi has returned to the centre of the political stage, striking a reform deal with a centre-left rival. Berlusconi was thrown out of parliament in 2013 after a tax fraud conviction.
But he still heads the opposition Forza Italia party and held lengthy talks with Democratic Party (PD) leader Matteo Renzi late on Saturday. Under their agreement, he will back electoral and constitutional proposals aimed at making Italy more governable.
The current electoral system has left Italy with a series of shaky coalitions.
After the jump, Greek meltdown redux, Ukrainian violence, Russian homophobic purging promises, Indian uncertainty, hints of a Chinese slowdown, mied news form Japan, contaminated children’s clothing, and the latest edition of Fukushimapocalypse Now!. . .
Our first Greek headline comes from EnetEnglish.gr:
380 municipal agencies facing the chop
Only half of the agencies known to exist have registered in a government census
Of the 12,815 employees believed to work in municipal agencies, only 5,464 have been registered in a compulsory government census to find out who is working for local government companies and how much they are being paid
A man outside parliament protests against public-sector layoffs (File photo) A man outside parliament protests against public-sector layoffs (File photo) Up to 380 municipal enterprises and agencies face “sudden death” – and having their staffs fired – unless they forward data about themselves and who they employ to the interior ministry within the next 15 days.
Speaking to a private TV station on Thursday, Deputy Interior Minister Leonidas Grigorakos (Pasok) said that the completion of a state-wide census of municipal bodies was supposed to have been completed in the last two months of 2013.
“Whoever has not been enumerated in the census will be fired. Of the 750 [bodies in existence], only 361 have participated in the census. As for the rest, the minister and the cabinet decided yesterday that if they don’t register within 15 days, they won’t be regarded as existing. So what will happen? There are 12,815 employees in these agencies and half – 5,464 – have been registered. They haven’t replied. We will apply the uniform pay scale for the public service and we will tell them ‘you are not being paid’. We want to see who works for the municipalities and what work they do.”
ANA-MPA stands pat:
FinMin: Troika has not changed its stance
“The troika (of Greece’s lenders) has not changed its stance. Its position is the same from the beginning” stated Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras on Saturday after the conclusion of a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras at the Maximos Mansion.
The meeting focused on the government’s preparations ahead of the troika’s return to Athens.
“Troika’s stance is neither mild nor tough. We have arguments, we send what we must send to them and they will come in Athens within the next days” said Stournaras.
To Vima spars:
Stournaras and Tsipras clash over banking scandals in Parliament
Minister of Finances claimed that “an unprecedented purge” is currently taking place “in all sectors”
The Minister of Finances Yannis Stournaras and the leader of SYRIZA Alexis Tsipras had a heated debate in Parliament earlier this morning, after the opposition leader posed a question to the Prime Minister about the recent banking scandals.
Mr. Stournaras responded that the government still has a long way ahead of itself and spoke of “an unprecedented purge” which is “in progress in all sectors”. The Minister argued that his goal is to ensure that the banks are gradually released from the Financial Stability Fund, while stressing that steps have been taken to increase bank audits.
Mr. Tsipras commented that “the Greek people are down on their knees so that the banks continue to profit” and stressed that contrary to other cases countries where the bailouts ensured public interests, “plundering prevailed in Greece”.
Keep Talking Greece inquisits:
Greece’ ruling party ND wants to know if SYRIZA’s Tsipras is an atheist
I first thought it was a hoax or a malicious troll stirring the already tensed relations between the party of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, Nea Dimocratia, and main opposition party left-wing SYRIZA. But when I heard about it also in the prime time news of nationwide private television channels, I was sure: there is no cure for this country and its people. As if there was no other important problem in this country, one of the ruling parties formally asked whether opposition party leader was an atheist…
In a statement issued on Sunday, Nea Dimocratia asks from SYRIZA to confirm or deny that Alexis Tsipras was an atheist.
Greek Reporter harmonizes:
Die Linke and Greek Major Opposition Party on Speaking Terms Again
The German Left Party “Die Linke” through their parliamentary spokesman on Foreign Affairs, Wolfgang Gehrcke, supports that Greece has every right to claim the war reparations bill from Germany. Thus, the German Parliamentary Spokesman of Die Linke, with his recent statement broke the ice between SYRIZA and his party.
Mr. Wolfgang Gehrcke in an interview he gave at the Greek newspaper To Vima, stated that his party and SYRIZA have a lot in common and nothing to separate. He continued by saying that SYRIZA and his party are on good terms again as the German Left party supports Greece ‘s claim for World War II reparations against Germany. The relations between the two parties have been put on ice due to a former statement of Die Linke’s co-president Bernd Riexinger who appeared to be against Greece’s claims. However, Mr Gehrcke said that the statements of Riexinger were wrongly interpreted.
“Our party decided unanimously that Greece has every right to claim the war reparations bill from Germany as the country suffered a great deal of damage during World War II. Our party will never stop to support this claim of Greece’s State in Bundestag” underlined Mr. Wolfgang Gehrcke.
Greek Reporter again, with a cruel shock:
Greek Recession, Unemployment and Expensive Electricity Bills Will Cause DEI to Collapse
The Public Power Corporation S.A Hellas (DEI) could not escape the tragic reality that the majority of Greek enterprises and households face every day. There is a deficit in DEI’s revenue due to unpaid bills, which reaches the amount of 1.3 billion euros. This amount is increasing every day by 4 million euros.
The majority of those who cannot afford to pay the electricity bills are Greek households and small Greek enterprises, as Kathimerini reports. In other words, the percentage of unpaid bills that corresponds to the Greek households is 65 percent.
The public sector owes DEI an amount that reaches 190 million euros. The medium-sized businesses have unpaid bills that are estimated at approximately 130 million euros, while Larco owes DEI more than 135 million euros.
Blue law repeal blues from Kathimerini English:
Protests in Athens and Thessaloniki against Sunday store opening
Several hundred people held rallies at central shopping districts in Athens and Thessaloniki on Sunday to protest the opening of retail stores on the first Sunday of the winter sales, arguing that the deregulation of operating hours was in violation of workers’ rights.
In Athens, some 300 people rallied on Ermou Street, the shopping strip on Syntagma Square in front of Parliament, as consumers flocked to the sales.
In Thessaloniki, meanwhile, the protests were led by the local union for retail workers. Several dozen protesters gathered in front of the Carrefour supermarket in the Makedonia mall and urged shoppers not to enter the store in protest of the measure allowing trade on Sunday.
Student housing crisis, via Greek Reporter:
Pauperization of Greek Student Residencies
residIn Greece, thousands of students don’t have the opportunity to attend a university outside their hometown because their families’ low income can’t support a small apartment. But even if the students wish to stay at the Public Student Residence, they might not get in as the rooms are extremely limited. On the other hand, students who do eventually get a room in the residence, must live under poor conditions.
At the same time, in Serres, Northern Greece and in Larissa, central Greece, there are buildings which were built with the unique purpose of covering the needs of student housing and which nonetheless still remain empty. In other cities like Athens and Thessaloniki, rooms in residencies become available daily. However, instead of immediately being given to someone else on the waiting list, the rooms remain empty for months due to the extensive Greek bureaucracy.
A freshman student of the TEI of Athens said “If I won’t be accepted in the residence, I will have to go back home.” In many cities in Greece, hundreds of students are studying without anywhere to stay. Patras, in Peloponnese, is the a perfect example of this.”
On to the Ukraine, with an inflammatory story from EUbusiness:
Kiev in flames as clashes leave trail of destruction
The flames from buses set ablaze lit up the night sky, protesters dug up stones from the pavement to hurl at police and the stench of tear gas hung thick, in unprecedented scenes in Ukraine’s capital Kiev.
In a standoff resembling a pitched battle, anti-government protesters sought to break a police cordon guarding the passage to official buildings, using almost any implement they could get their hands on as a weapon.
Molotov cocktails were hurled at the police as demonstrators launched periodic charges armed with baseball bats, sticks and chains at the line of security forces. They moved back before launching another surge.
And ominous words from Moscow via Al Jazeera America:
Putin: Russia must ‘cleanse’ itself of gays, but they shouldn’t fear Sochi
Russian president offers assurances to gay and straight Olympics participants that safety is not a concern
Russian President Vladimir Putin defended Russia’s anti-gay law Sunday, linking homosexuality with pedophilia and stating Russia needs to “cleanse” itself of gays if it wants to increase its birth rate.
Putin’s comments in an interview broadcast Sunday with Russian and foreign television stations displayed the wide gulf between Putin’s views on homosexuality and that of many in the west ahead of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi that could be overshadowed by the debate.
A Russian law passed last year banning “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” among minors has caused an international outcry and led to calls to boycott the games, due to take place in February.
Off to Latin America with a labor crisis from the Santiago Times:
Powerful truckers’ union demands resolution of port strike
Fifteen days in, crippling port strike ignites tensions as fruit producers brand strikers ‘criminals,’ and truckers threaten government with blockade.
An influential trucker syndicate demanded the government take immediate steps to resolve a major port strike on Thursday, threatening industrial action if the work stoppage continues.
Juan Araya, president of the Truck Owners’ Confederation (CDC), called for the government to mediate between striking unions and port owners and find a solution to the shutdown which is estimated to have caused losses in the billions for fruit exporters and the transport industry since it began Jan. 3.
Fifteen ports are currently in stoppage, including the major fruit handling port of San Antonio. Workers claim they are yet to be paid compensation promised as part of a resolution reached with port authorities and the Labor Ministry in 2013, principally the remuneration of a half-hour lunch break. Last week the government declined to involve itself in what it characterized as a dispute between workers and an employer.
The Rio Times again, and an industrial ag record in the making:
Brazil Soybean 2014 Output May Surpass U.S.: Daily
Brazil’s soybean production is increasing due to good growing conditions and farmers choosing the crop over corn.
According to Agriculture Minister Antonio Andrade of Brazil, the Latin American country’s output of Soybeans is set for a record breaking harvest in 2014 after an increased amount of rain and heightened investment in fertilizers looks set to boost yields.
Andrade has estimated that Brazil’s market can produce 95 million metric tons of the versatile crops, which can be used to create foodstuffs such as meat alternatives like tofu, soy milk, and vegetable oil, it can even serve as feed for cattle.
If the Brazilian minister is correct in his estimation, this year Brazil could see their harvest overtake that of the world’s current biggest producer, the United States.
Asia next, starting in India with Nikkei Asian Review:
Indian economy showing signs of improvement, maybe
There are rays of hope for the Indian economy concerning two key problems — the steep fall in the rupee’s value and inflation. This is thanks in most part to recent actions by the central bank.
The Reserve Bank of India’s efforts to prop up the Indian economy may end in vain if economic reforms become a political football.
With a general election expected to be held in India this spring, however, political strife could spoil the Reserve Bank of India’s measures to prop up the economy.
The RBI, led by Gov. Raghuram Rajan, announced Monday that it was easing regulations for foreign exchange contracts introduced to support the battered rupee, which plunged more than 20% in value in the three months through August and threatened to upturn the entire economy.
The Guardian takes us to Thailand and turmoil:
Thailand reels from bombings as political violence escalates
Bangkok hit by two explosions, leaving 28 injured, as anti-government protesters take to the streets again
Two explosions have hit an anti-government demonstration site in Bangkok, wounding at least 28 people, as Thailand’s increasingly volatile political crisis drags on.
Police said the blasts on Sunday near Victory Monument, in the north of the capital, were caused by fragmentation grenades – the same kind that killed one man and wounded dozens in a similar explosion targeting protest marchers on Friday.
And on to China with Xinhua:
Bank profit growth could miss 10-pct target: analysts
China’s listed banks may see profit growth under 10 percent this year as financial reform and Internet businesses take their toll on the sector.
Chief economist at the Bank of Communications Lian Ping forecast net profit growth for listed banks at around 8.3 percent this year, a notable retreat from the double-digit era, according to China Securities Journal. China Merchants Securities analyst Luo Yi put the figure at 9.4 percent.
Difficulties for banks in securing handsome profits come as the government moves to gradually ease its grip on interest rates — a major source of bank revenue. Last month, the central bank allowed interbank trading of deposit certificates, another step toward fully floating interest rates, following the removal of the floor on lending rates in July.
People’s Daily boosts big ag:
China to increase subsidies to grain production
The Chinese government will extend greater support to agriculture, including more subsidies to major grain-growing regions, vice premier Wang Yang has said.
Wang made the remarks during his visit in central China’s Henan Province from Friday to Saturday, saying that policy supports will be strengthened for agricultural development and farmers interests.
He stressed the crucial role of grain production in social and economic development, and urged more investment, subsidies and incentives for grain production and processing.
Bloomberg News falters:
China’s Expansion Loses Momentum in Fourth Quarter
China’s economic growth slowed in the fourth quarter as gains in factory output and investment spending eased last month, sapping momentum as a credit clampdown adds pressure on the outlook for this year.
Gross domestic product rose 7.7 percent in the October-December period from a year earlier and 1.8 percent from the prior quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics said today in Beijing. Asian stocks pared declines and the Australian dollar and copper erased losses after year-over-year GDP exceeded the median estimate of analysts in a Bloomberg News survey.
Any deeper slowdown would test leaders’ willingness to implement the broadest policy shifts since the 1990s and tackle debt-fueled investment, after President Xi Jinping scrapped a goal of “relatively fast” growth in his first year in power. The world’s second-largest economy may expand at the weakest pace in almost a quarter century in 2014, a survey showed last month, as spending on infrastructure and factories moderates.
More from Quartz:
China’s economy grew 7.7% in 2013 because Beijing got nervous and started juicing
China is the only major economy in the world to set a hard target for economic growth, and the latest GDP figures released today show precisely why it’s a bad idea.
Fueled by a huge surge in government “mini-stimulus” lending in the second half of the year, China’s GDP increased by a higher-than-expected 7.7% for 2013 (link in Chinese) according to the National Bureau of Statistics. That might sound like a good thing, but it’s not: essentially the government freaked out at the prospect of missing its 7.5% target, and overshot the mark.
The consequences—especially for China’s attempts to reform its economy and limit the amount of debt that its businesses and local governments are taking on—could be ugly.
Bloomberg News bubbles:
China’s 2013 New Home Sales Hit $1.1 Trillion, Record High
China’s new home sales last year exceeded $1 trillion for the first time as property prices in cities the government considers first tier surged in the absence of more nationwide property curbs.
The value of new homes sold in 2013 rose 27 percent from 2012 to 6.8 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion), National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement today. New-home prices in December climbed 20 percent in Guangzhou and Shenzhen from a year earlier, and jumped 18 percent in Shanghai and 16 percent in Beijing, the bureau of statistics said Jan. 18.
Premier Li Keqiang hasn’t imposed additional nationwide measures to cool the market since his predecessor Wen Jiabao stepped up a three-year campaign in March, or
On to Japan with a wiseguy prevention plan from NewsOnJapan:
Japan bank sets up watchdog after mobster scandal
Major Japanese bank Mizuho Financial Group said Friday it was setting up an oversight committee in the wake of a damaging loans-to-gangsters scandal.
The watchdog was among the measures that Mizuho outlined in a report to regulators on how it would deal with the embarrassing revelations, which have also engulfed rivals Mitsubishi UFJ and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.
Mizuho said the oversight panel — including outside professionals and headed by the bank’s president — would keep an eye on its business practices.
The Japan Times charts an uptick:
Japanese household assets rose 1.5% in 2012, first increase in six years
The value of assets held by Japanese households at the end of 2012 rose 1.5 percent from a year earlier to ¥2.586 quadrillion, the first increase in six years, the government said Friday in its national accounts report.
A major reason behind the increase was that stock prices rose on the back of the yen’s depreciation in the second half of 2012, pushing up the value of households’ stock holdings, a Cabinet Office official said.
The value of nonfinancial assets slid 1.3 percent to ¥1.033 quadrillion while that of financial assets increased 3.4 percent to ¥1.557 quadrillion, the government said.
The overall net worth of households — their assets minus debts — increased 1.9 percent to ¥2.233 quadrillion, it said.
On to Fukushimapocalypse Now!
First, the daily disaster from the Asahi Shimbun:
New leak found in Fukushima plant’s wrecked No. 3 building
A new water leak, possibly from the effort to cool a crippled reactor, has been detected on the first floor of a reactor building at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Jan. 18.
TEPCO said workers discovered by a video feed that water was leaking on the first floor of the wrecked No. 3 reactor building earlier in the day.
The utility added that the water was flowing into the basement of the reactor building and not outside the structure. It is investigating the source of the leak.
More from NHK WORLD:
Radioactive water leaking at Fukushima Daiichi
The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says water leaking in the number 3 reactor building is most likely to have come from the containment vessel.
Tokyo Electric Power Company discovered the water flow on the first floor of the reactor building on Saturday. The stream is about 30 centimeters wide and continuously pours into a drain.
An investigation showed the water contains nearly as high a level of radioactive materials as the contaminated water accumulating in the building’s basement.
TEPCO says it detected 24 million becquerels per liter of beta ray-emitting radioactive substances, including strontium, as well as 1.7 million becquerels per liter of Cesium 137.
Jiji Press goes for the business:
TEPCO Eager to Promote Power Sales Nationwide
Tokyo Electric Power Co. is eager to sell electricity nationwide as the regional utility is losing customers in the Kanto region, its traditional service area including Tokyo, to newcomers, TEPCO President Naomi Hirose said in an interview on Saturday.
Set to begin power sales elsewhere across Japan in fiscal 2014, TEPCO plans to focus first on factories and offices that its existing customers run outside the Tokyo metropolitan area, Hirose said.
The Asahi Shimbun resists:
Study: Nearly one-third of localities call for end to nuclear power
Nearly one-third of the nation’s local assemblies, including those at the prefectural level, have submitted statements calling for the abolition of nuclear power plants to the Diet since the Fukushima crisis in 2011, according to a study by The Asahi Shimbun.
Most of such statements by 455 assemblies were adopted in prefectures that share borders with prefectures hosting nuclear power plants. The declarations called for a sweeping change in the nation’s energy policy, and a large number also advocate a significant increase in renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power.
The Kochi municipal assembly in Kochi Prefecture demanded a “review of dependence on nuclear power plants whose safety is not established,” while the Kunitachi municipal assembly in Tokyo pressed for a “switch to a society not relying on nuclear power.”
The Guardian does the usual:
Emails reveal UK helped shale gas industry manage fracking opposition
Government officials accused of cheerleading for fracking by sharing ‘lines to take’ and meeting for post-dinner drinks
Shale gas executives and government officials collaborated in private to manage the British public’s hostility to fracking, emails released under freedom of information rules reveal.
Officials shared pre-prepared statements with the industry last year before major announcements and hosted high-level dinners with “further discussion over post-dinner drinks”, while the industry shared long lists of “stakeholders” to be targeted. Critics said the government was acting as an arm of the gas industry” and was guilty of cheerleading, but officials defended the discussionsaid facilitating discussions was “right and proper” as “right and proper”.
This week David Cameron said the government was “going all out for shale” and announced financial incentives for councils and local communities, labelled bribes by opponents. There have been major protests against fracking at sites across the country, and a Guardian poll last summer showed the public evenly split for and against shale gas wells near them.
And for our final item, baby blues from the Portugal News:
Greenpeace finds toxic materials in children’s clothing of top brands
Hazardous chemicals have been found in children’s clothes and shoes made by major brands including Disney, Burberry and Adidas, according to a new investigation released on Tuesday by Greenpeace East Asia.
Testing was carried out on products sold by 12 brands across the industry, including American Apparel, GAP, Primark and Nike for the report “A Little Story About the Monsters in Your Closet”, which is available on greenpeace.org. The findings showed little distinction between the levels of hazardous chemicals in clothing made for children – a group particularly vulnerable to the effects of these chemicals when released into the environment – and adults when compared to previous studies.
