We begin today’s compendium with two general items and conclude it with another.
In between, we’ve got economic symptoms, Asian anxieties, spooks, hackers, and more.
First up, from Pacific Standard, a case of old school is better:
Want to Remember Your Notes? Write Them, Don’t Type Them
Dust off your pens and notebooks. A new study finds laptops make note-taking so easy it’s actually ineffective.
In the past decade, a bunch of studies have shown that bringing a laptop to class is not great for learning. Anyone who has sat through a lecture with the Internet in front of them hasn’t really been surprised. After all, you can only take so many notes while simultaneously catching up on Game of Thrones and g-chatting with your friends.
A new study in Psychological Science, though, suggests there’s even more to laptops’ negative effects on learning than distraction. Go old school with a pen and paper next time you want to remember something, according to Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer of Princeton and the University of California-Los Angeles, respectively, because laptops actually make note-taking too easy.
The researchers ran a series of studies that tested college students’ understanding of TED Talks after they took notes on the videos either in longhand or on Internet-less laptops. Even without Facebook, the computer users consistently did worse at answering conceptual questions, as well as factual-based ones, when there was a considerable delay between the videos and testing.
And from Xinhua, signs of the times:
Depression, anxiety rise in rich countries: German expert
A dramatic increase in the number of treated cases of emotional disorders has been observed in industrialized countries, a Germany expert said here Thursday.
Depression and anxiety disorders are on the rise and are closely attached to significant changes in personal goals and objectives in broader society, President of the German Society of Psychology Juergen Margraf was quoted as saying by the Wiener Zeitung newspaper.
Margraf, also a professor at Ruhr University Bochum, pointed to “spectacular data” to show the changes in many regions of the world, along with an observation of the increase in narcissism, seen through things such as pop songs increasingly using the words “I, me, mine” compared to 20 years ago.
This is manifested in a move in broader society from internal to external goals, such as an increase in the value placed on status and money and less about relationships and the search for meaning, he told a meeting of the Austrian Psychological Society in Vienna.
And on to the United States, first with a hit to the wallet from the Los Angeles Times:
U.S. electricity prices may be going up for good
Experts warn of a growing fragility as coal-fired plants are shut down, nuclear power is reduced and consumers switch to renewable energy.
There is a growing fragility in the U.S. electricity system, experts warn, the result of the shutdown of coal-fired plants, reductions in nuclear power, a shift to more expensive renewable energy and natural gas pipeline constraints. The result is likely to be future price shocks. And they may not be temporary.
One recent study predicts the cost of electricity in California alone could jump 47% over the next 16 years, in part because of the state’s shift toward more expensive renewable energy.
“We are now in an era of rising electricity prices,” said Philip Moeller, a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, who said the steady reduction in generating capacity across the nation means that prices are headed up. “If you take enough supply out of the system, the price is going to increase.”
In fact, the price of electricity has already been rising over the last decade, jumping by double digits in many states, even after accounting for inflation. In California, residential electricity prices shot up 30% between 2006 and 2012, adjusted for inflation, according to Energy Department figures. Experts in the state’s energy markets project the price could jump an additional 47% over the next 15 years.
From the Japan Times, another land rush, another set of buyers:
Chinese gobble up U.S. real estate
For the first time, the Chinese have become the biggest foreign buyers of apartments in Manhattan, real estate brokers estimate, taking the mantle from the Russians — whose activity has dropped off since the unrest in Ukraine and the imposition of sanctions against Russia by the United States.
Wealthy Chinese are pouring money into real estate in New York and some other major cities around the world, including London and Sydney, as they seek safe havens for their cash and also establish a base for their children to get an education in the West.
Reuters asked five of the top real estate brokerages for their ranking of foreign buyers in New York City. The Chinese ranked first in both volume and value of sales in all their estimates.
From the New York Times, a case of one laqw for the rich, another for the rest of us:
Double Standards in Bankruptcies
Developments in the Detroit bankruptcy have exposed a double standard in federal bankruptcy law, an injustice in urgent need of congressional reform.
In Detroit, the judge has ruled that under Chapter 9 of the bankruptcy law, the city’s creditors include even municipal pensioners whose payouts are guaranteed under the Michigan Constitution. Accordingly, the pensioners have reached a tentative deal to reduce retiree benefits; along with concessions made by other creditors, the goal is to help the debtor, the city of Detroit, get a fresh start and move forward.
Contrast that with what happened in the housing bust. The creditors in that fiasco — including powerful banks — did not have to cut deals in court with bankrupt homeowners. Under Chapter 13 of the bankruptcy law, a section heavily influenced by the financial industry, lenders cannot be forced to rework most residential mortgages in bankruptcy.
That is where the legal double standard comes in. In Detroit’s bust, even pensioners have to negotiate new terms; in the housing bust, big banks did not have to negotiate, leaving many homeowners in the dust.
And from Businessweek, low prices and high bribery costs:
Wal-Mart Pays—and Pays—in Response to the Bribery Probe
Ever since allegations of bribery and corruption in Wal-Mart’s (WMT) international operations emerged two years ago, the world’s biggest retailer has spent more than $400 million in legal fees and compliance costs. That makes it one of the most expensive probes in U.S. history. It’s not over yet: Walmart is conducting its own investigation, cooperating with a federal probe, and paying legal fees for dozens of executives.
We know how expensive lawyers can be. Now, thanks to Walmart’s first-ever Global Compliance Report, we also know how much the company has spent on improving its anti-corruption program and financial controls: more than $109 million. That figure will grow, too. In February, Walmart estimated that its bribery probe and compliance costs would total $200 million to $240 million for the year.
While the New York Times covers the school privatization push bankrolled by the money saved by everyday low wages
A Walmart Fortune, Spreading Charter Schools
DC Prep operates four charter schools here with 1,200 students in preschool through eighth grade. The schools, whose students are mostly poor and black, are among the highest performing in Washington. Last year, DC Prep’s flagship middle school earned the best test scores among local charter schools, far outperforming the average of the city’s traditional neighborhood schools as well.
Another, less trumpeted, distinction for DC Prep is the extent to which it — as well as many other charter schools in the city — relies on the Walton Family Foundation, a philanthropic group governed by the family that founded Walmart.
Since 2002, the charter network has received close to $1.2 million from Walton in direct grants. A Walton-funded nonprofit helped DC Prep find building space when it moved its first two schools from a chapel basement into former warehouses that now have large classrooms and wide, art-filled hallways.
From Pro Publica, more nonprofit legerdemain:
What Happens When a Dark Money Group Blows Off IRS Rules? Nothing.
The Government Integrity Fund spent most of its money on election ads, despite IRS rules prohibiting a social welfare nonprofit from doing so.
To see how easy it is for a dark money group to ignore the Internal Revenue Service, look no further than the loftily named Government Integrity Fund.
The Fund, an Ohio nonprofit, spent more than $1 million in 2012 on TV ads attacking Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and praising his Republican opponent, Josh Mandel. Now the Fund’s tax return, which ProPublica obtained from the IRS this week, indicates that the group spent most of its money on politics — even though IRS rules say nonprofits like the Fund aren’t allowed to do that.
The Government Integrity Fund was founded in May 2011 and applied later that year for IRS recognition of its tax-exempt status, swearing under penalty of perjury that it would not engage in politics but would instead “promote the social welfare of the citizens of Ohio.” Within two months, the IRS had recognized the group.
From The Guardian, a case of blowback to Bible Belt theocon laws, in this case the Mississippi Religious Freedom Restoration Act:
‘We don’t discriminate’: Mississippi business owners resist anti-gay law
Critics fear new bill could prompt officials to look away from discrimination carried out in the name of religious belief
In conservative Mississippi, some business owners who support equal treatment for gay and lesbian people are pushing back against a new law that bans government from limiting the free practice of religion.
Critics fear the vaguely written law, which takes effect July 1, will prompt authorities to look away from anti-gay actions that are carried out in the name of religious beliefs — for example, photographers refusing to take pictures for same-sex couples because they believe homosexuality is a sin.
Hundreds of businesses, from hair salons to bakeries and art galleries, have started displaying round blue window stickers that declare: “We don’t discriminate. If you’re buying, we’re selling.”
And leave it to Boing Boing to to play an appropriately ironic game-of-connect the dots:
State Dept launches ‘Free the Press’ campaign while DOJ asks Supreme Court to force NYT’s James Risen to jail
The US State Department announced the launch of its third annual “Free the Press” campaign [Friday], which will purportedly highlight “journalists or media outlets that are censored, attacked, threatened, or otherwise oppressed because of their reporting.” A noble mission for sure. But maybe they should kick off the campaign by criticizing their own Justice Department, which on the very same day, has asked the Supreme Court to help them force Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times reporter James Risen into jail.
Politico’s Josh Gerstein reports that the Justice Department filed a legal brief today urging the Supreme Court to reject Risen’s petition to hear his reporter’s privilege case, in which the Fourth Circuit ruled earlier this year that James Risen (and all journalists) can be forced to testify against their sources without any regard to the confidentiality required by their profession. This flies in the face of common law precedent all over the country, as well as the clear district court reasoning in Risen’s case in 2012. (The government’s Supreme Court brief can be read here.)
Associated Press reporter Matthew Lee commendably grilled the State Department spokesman about the contradiction of its press freedom campaign and the James Risen case at today’s briefing on the State Department initiative, repeatedly asking if the government considers press freedom issues in the United States the same way it does aboard.
The Washington Post has some hopeful blowback to the Obama administration’s Orwellian litigators:
Low-level federal judges balking at law enforcement requests for electronic evidence
Judges at the lowest levels of the federal judiciary are balking at sweeping requests by law enforcement officials for cellphone and other sensitive personal data, declaring the demands overly broad and at odds with basic constitutional rights.
This rising assertiveness by magistrate judges — the worker bees of the federal court system — has produced rulings that elate civil libertarians and frustrate investigators, forcing them to meet or challenge tighter rules for collecting electronic evidence.
Wired provides us a case of medical high anxiety:
It’s Insanely Easy to Hack Hospital Equipment
When Scott Erven was given free rein to roam through all of the medical equipment used at a large chain of Midwest health care facilities, he knew he would find security problems–but he wasn’t prepared for just how bad it would be.
In a study spanning two years, Erven and his team found drug infusion pumps–for delivering morphine drips, chemotherapy and antibiotics–that can be remotely manipulated to change the dosage doled out to patients; Bluetooth-enabled defibrillators that can be manipulated to deliver random shocks to a patient’s heart or prevent a medically needed shock from occurring; X-rays that can be accessed by outsiders lurking on a hospital’s network; temperature settings on refrigerators storing blood and drugs that can be reset, causing spoilage; and digital medical records that can be altered to cause physicians to misdiagnose, prescribe the wrong drugs or administer unwarranted care.
Erven’s team also found that, in some cases, they could blue-screen devices and restart or reboot them to wipe out the configuration settings, allowing an attacker to take critical equipment down during emergencies or crash all of the testing equipment in a lab and reset the configuration to factory settings.
And Reuters reports on another:
Exclusive: FBI warns healthcare sector vulnerable to cyber attacks
The FBI has warned healthcare providers their cybersecurity systems are lax compared to other sectors, making them vulnerable to attacks by hackers searching for Americans’ personal medical records and health insurance data.
Health data is far more valuable to hackers on the black market than credit card numbers because it tends to contain details that can be used to access bank accounts or obtain prescriptions for controlled substances.
“The healthcare industry is not as resilient to cyber intrusions compared to the financial and retail sectors, therefore the possibility of increased cyber intrusions is likely,” the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a private notice it has been distributing to healthcare providers, obtained by Reuters.
The Guardian offers some good old-fashioned common sense from a surprising source:
Legalise marijuana, says former US supreme court justice
John Paul Stevens, 94, draws parallel with alcohol prohibition
Stevens also proposes ban on capital punishment
The former supreme court justice John Paul Stevens said on Saturday that the federal government should legalise marijuana.
Stevens, 94, was speaking to National Public Radio, in an interview to discuss his new book. Asked if federal law should follow those states – Washington and Colorado – that have legalised the drug, he said: “Yes.”
He continued: “Public opinion has changed and recognised that the distinction between marijuana and alcoholic beverages is really not much of a distinction. There’s a general consensus that prohibition against dispensing and selling alcoholic beverages is not worth the cost, and I think really in time that will be the general consensus with this particular drug.
“It’s really a very similar problem to the whole problem with prohibition – and of course I lived through that, or part of that period.”
JapanToday raises a point some [as in the case of esnl] might find hopeful:
Aso says Obama powerless to get U.S. Congress behind TPP
Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said Friday he believed talks between Japan and the United States on reaching an agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership will take much more time and make little headway ahead of this year’s congressional elections in the United States.
“President Obama doesn’t have the political power to do much before the midterm elections in November,” Aso told reporters.
Speaking at a joint news conference with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe earlier this week, U.S. President Barack Obama said winning final approval for the trade agreement would mean “that we have to sometimes push our constituencies beyond their current comfort levels because ultimately it’s going to deliver a greater good for all people.”
Even if the two countries can resolve their differences, there are real doubts about whether Obama can rally political support for the agreement in Washington. Labor groups and lawmakers in Obama’s own Democratic Party oppose the pact, arguing it could leave U.S. workers vulnerable to competition from countries with lower labor costs.
The Yomiuri Shimbun detects political spin:
Govt sought to play down TPP ‘accord’
The Japanese government wanted to avoid using the expression “a basic agreement” in the joint statement over Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations with the United States because it was concerned about the impact the words would have on a House of Representatives by-election in Kagoshima Prefecture Constituency No. 2, a Japanese government source said.
While The Yomiuri Shimbun reported Friday that Japan and the United States had reached a basic agreement in TPP negotiations, other papers wrote they “put off a broad agreement” or “failed to reach an agreement” on their front pages.
Whilst Bloomberg gets closer to the truth:
Pritzker Says Deal Close on Pacific-Trade Agreement
U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend, that she’s optimistic negotiators for 12 nations — including America — will agree on a Pacific-region trade deal that can be submitted to Congress this year.
On to Europe, starting with costly symbolism from RT:
Assange stakeout costs Londoners $9 mn
Guarding the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where Julian Assange has sought political asylum, has cost the Metropolitan Police £5.3 million ($9 million), officers have had the place staked out around the clock since June 2012.
A freedom of information request by the British media to London’s Metropolitan Police estimates the cost of policing the Ecuadorian embassy between June 2012 and December 2013 at £5.3 million, including £4.4 million ($7.3 million) going on police pay, while £900,000 ($1.5 million) was spent paying officers overtime.
The cost to the London taxpayer is just under £10,000 ($17,000) a day. At any time of the day or night, there are three officers stationed outside the embassy, ready to arrest Assange if he tries to make a run for it – or pops out for a pint of milk.
Denmark next and another outbreak of common sense from Deutsche Welle:
Copenhagen grows own dope to counteract drug dealers
Fans of Danish television series such “The Killing” and “The Bridge” will be familiar with the fictional dark side of apparently squeaky clean Scandinavia in which the police always emerge victorious. But the reality is that Denmark is losing a war against organized crime that is making vast profits out of cannabis. Copenhagen has become a battleground between bikers and rival gangs fighting for supremacy in a market that’s worth around 150 million euros a year. Now Copenhagen city council has come up with a radical proposal to try to undermine the gangs by growing and selling its own dope.
Germany next and another hopeful sign from the Associated Press:
Thousands block far-right march in Berlin
Thousands of Berliners have blocked a group of right-wing extremists from staging a march through the German capital.
Police say some 2,000 people stood in the way of the planned route of a demonstration organized Saturday by the far-right National Democratic Party.
The party, known by its acronym NPD, had planned to march through Berlin’s Kreuzberg district, which has a large immigrant population. Germany’s security services say the party has a racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic agenda.
Police spokesman Thomas Neuendorf says the 100 far-right activists were able to proceed only for a couple of hundred meters (yards) before their path was blocked and “it’s unlikely they’ll get any further today.”
From RT, some raw footage of the encounter:
Neo-Nazis clash with police in Berlin, march prevented by activists
Program notes:
About a hundred neo-fascists were only allowed to march 300 meters from their gathering point as left-wingers, trade unions and ordinary Berliners joined forces to stop a neo-Nazi march. Clashes between the groups led to some injuries and arrests.
Paris next, and anxieties from France 24:
Potential GE takeover of Alstom a ‘patriotic concern’ for France
A possible takeover bid by US giant General Electric for struggling French engineering group Alstom would be a matter of “patriotic concern” for France, the country’s Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg said Friday.
It follows a report by Bloomberg on Thursday that GE is in talks over a $13 billion deal for the turbine and train maker, which employs a fifth of its workforce – or around 18,000 people – in France.
Speaking to French daily Le Monde, Montebourg admitted the possibility of losing one of France’s biggest engineering groups to a foreign company was a significant worry for the government. “Alstom is a symbol of our industrial power and of French ingenuity,” he said.
From RFI, a measure to slow eurogentrification:
Corsica votes to ban house sales to non-residents
The local parliament on the French island of Corsica has voted to ban anyone who has not lived on the island for five years from buying property on the Mediterranean “Isle of Beauty”. The move is an attempt to stop property prices out of reach of the local population.
The Corsican local assembly passed the measure by 29-18 on Friday but it must gain approval in the French National Assembly to become law.
That is unlikely since the government has already said that creating a status of “resident”, which is part of the proposal, would be unconstitutional because it violates the principle of equality of all French citizens.
Portugal next, with BBC News an outbreak of anti-austerian outrage:
Anger as Portugal marks 40 years of democracy
Protests over EU-imposed austerity have overshadowed the 40th anniversary of democracy in Portugal.
Several thousand people marched in central Lisbon and listened to speeches criticising government cuts.
Participating in the protest marches were some of the leaders of the 1974 Carnation Revolution, which ended almost five decades of dictatorship.
Portugal has had to implement severe austerity measures since being granted an international bailout in 2011.
Spain next, and a ratings boost from TheLocal.es:
Fitch upgrades Spain credit rating
Fitch Ratings upgraded Spain’s sovereign credit on Friday, capping a string of good news for a nation still recovering from a job-wrecking, double-dip recession.
The eurozone’s fourth-largest economy emerged only gingerly from a two-year downturn in mid-2013.
Despite the blight of a nearly 26 percent unemployment rate, however, fresh data appear to show Spain enjoying a modest but gathering recovery from five years of stop-start recession.
EUbusiness takes us to Italy and the case of the befuddled Bunga Bungler:
Germans deny existence of concentration camps: Berlusconi
Italy’s gaffe-prone former premier Silvio Berlusconi enraged his political opponents Saturday by saying Germans do not believe World War II concentration camps existed.
“According to the Germans, there never were concentration camps,” billionaire Berlusconi said in the latest barb aimed at European Parliament chief Martin Schultz, the centre-left candidate in the race to lead the EU Commission.
The media mogul, who is campaigning for the European elections on behalf of his centre-right party despite a tax-fraud conviction, was defending comments he made in 2003, when he offered Schulz a part in a film as a “kapo”, a camp inmate tasked with overseeing prisoners.
“I didn’t want to insult him. But heavens above, according to the Germans, there never were concentration camps,” he said.
After the jump, the latest from Greece [criminal and economic], Latin American warning signs, the latest developments in the Asian Game of Zones, still more nuclear anxieties both domestic and Japanese, a host of fracking woes, and the latest emerging global health threat. . .
For our first Greek item, the threat of austerity to come from ANA-MPA:
Tsipras: ‘Government has admitted to a new memorandum’
The government has officially admitted to the existence of a new memorandum via Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras, main opposition Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) leader Alexis Tsipras asserted in a statement to the newspaper ‘Realnews’ published on Saturday.
“This admission tears to shreds the claims made by [Prime Minister Antonis Samaras] that we are finished with the memorandums and that there won’t be a new one,” Tsipras added, citing the response given by Stournaras to the main opposition’s request to see the final agreement with the EU-IMF troika tabled in Parliament.
He also accused Stournaras, who replied that documents are posted on the finance ministry website after being updated, of showing contempt toward Parliament.
From Greek Reporter, a tête–à–tête, ominous or otherwise:
Lagarde And Merkel to Meet Over Greece’s Debt
lagarde-merkel-GreeceManaging Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Christine Lagarde and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are to hold a meeting in Washington on May 2 on the financial situation in the broader European Union and eurozone, while also addressing the Greek financial crisis and the possible negotiations over relieving some of Greece’s debt burden.
The meeting between the two powerful women is to take place at the headquarters of the IMF in Washington and is part of a scheduled visit by the German head of government to the U.S. capital, where she is to meet also with U.S. President Barack Obama.
Kathimerini English covers the latest woes for the neo-Nazi party now coming in third in national polls:
Parliament to vote on lifting immunity of more GD MPs
Parliament is to vote on lifting the immunity from prosecution of another four lawmakers of the ultra-right Golden Dawn, and a former MP, on Wednesday, House Speaker Evangelos Meimarakis has informed the magistrates heading a criminal probe into the party.
The debate on whether or not to lift the immunity of Antonios Gregos, Polyvios Zisimopoulos, Artemis Matthaiopoulos, Constantinos Barbarousis and Chrysovalantis Alexopoulos, who quit the party last month, is to begin in Parliament’s plenary session on Wednesday and be followed immediately by a vote, Meimarakis told magistrates Ioanna Klapa and Maria Dimitropoulou in a letter on Saturday.
After Wednesday’s vote, MPs will be asked to approve the magistrates’ request for extra charges to be brought against detained party leader Nikos Michaloliakos and the MPs Christos Pappas, Yiannis Lagos, Giorgos Germenis, Panagiotis Iliopoulos, Nikos Michos and Stathis Boukouras, who quit the party last month.
From EnetEnglish.gr, an electoral inconvenience on the right:
New Democracy European election candidate to challenge plagiarism conviction
Appeals court confirms Photini Tomai published someone else’s work under her own name
An appeals court finds Photini Tomai, who is running for New Democracy in May’s European Parliament elections, guilty of plagiarising a children’s book. She says she’ll now take the case to the Supreme Court
A senior foreign ministry official who lost an appeal against a book plagiarism conviction is running for a seat in the European Parliament on New Democracy’s ticket.
In an October 2013 appeal court decision that has only recently been published, Photini Tomai, director of the foreign ministry’s archive, was told again that she must pay €20,000 in compensation to two authors after she published a children’s book that they wrote under her own name. Tomai says she will now appeal to the Supreme Court.
The decision confirmed an earlier ruling by Athens first instance court that Tomai was guilty of copyright infringement. That court ruled that a book entitled 1,2,3 … 11 True Olympian Stories, published in 2008 by Papazisi, was the work of screenwriter Eleni Kefalopoulou and her husband, film director Aris Fotiadis.
On to Latin America, and a sign of discontent from BBC News:
Bolivia dismisses hundreds of protesting soldiers
Bolivia’s military chiefs have ordered the dismissal of 702 servicemen who have been protesting to demand better working conditions.
The army, navy and air force accused the men of committing acts of sedition and rebellion, and attacking the honour of the armed forces.
The soldiers say the armed forces discriminate against indigenous Bolivians, a claim the military denies.
MercoPress sounds an economic alarm:
Argentina’s industrial production and trade surplus falls point to recession
Argentina’s industrial production contracted 6% in March from the same month last year, the government said on Friday, marking the sixth consecutive monthly loss in factory output due in part to weakness in the auto-making sector. In another report released on Friday Argentina’s trade surplus contracted dramatically, indicating the country could be effectively heading for a recession.
Factory output shrank 1.8% in March as measured against February, according to a statement from the INDEC national statistics institute. The year-on-year figure was seasonally adjusted while the March versus February figure non-seasonally adjusted.
In the last twelve months car production plummeted 25.1%, and during the first quarter of the year was down 14.5%, mainly because of the fall in exports to Brazil.
This confirms six months running with negative results for manufacturing: 0.6% in February; 3% in January; 5.6% in December; 4.9% in November and 1.1% in October. In the first quarter of this year the negative performance was 3.1% compared to the same period a year ago.
From BBC News, some will call it justice:
Brazilian military rule torturer Paulo Malhaes found dead
A Brazilian former army colonel who admitted torturing and killing political prisoners under military rule up to the 1980s has been found dead.
Paulo Malhaes, 76, was killed by three men who entered his home outside Rio de Janeiro on Thursday, police say.
Last month, he said he never regretted killing “as many people as necessary” and tortured “many” prisoners.
Almost 500 people disappeared or were killed in Brazil when it was ruled by the army between 1964 and 1985.
On to Asia, starting with suspicions confirmed by Want China Times:
US and China have lost mutual trust, says joint study
A joint report compiled by the University of Southern California and Peking University shows mutual trust between Chinese and Americans has declined in recent years and suggested the two countries should carry out non-official exchanges to increase mutual understanding and facilitate direct communication, reports our Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily.
The report, Building US-China Trust: Through Next Generation People, Platforms & Programs, was released by USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism and the School of International Studies, Peking University.
The study said that many people in China have no idea about the lives of people in the United States. Around 49% of the Chinese survey participants felt that tension between the two nations was primarily caused by the Taiwan issue while another 33% put tensions down to other regional security matters. Both figures were double what they were five years ago. On the US side, Americans surveyed said the sources of tension between China and the United States were issues related to trade, human rights, industrial espionage and cyber security.
From Channel NewsAsia Singapore, a return to the status quo ante in the Game of Zones:
Chinese ships return to disputed waters after Obama’s Tokyo visit
Two Chinese coastguard ships sailed into waters around disputed islands in the East China Sea on Saturday, the Japanese coastguard said, two days after US President Barack Obama declared his support for Japan.
The vessels entered 12 nautical miles (22 kilometres) into Japan’s territorial waters off one of the Senkaku islands, which China also claims and calls the Diaoyus, around noon (0300 GMT), the coastguard said.
It was the first such move since Obama announced Thursday that Washington would defend Japan, under the bilateral military alliance, if China initiates an attack in the tense territorial dispute.
While JapanToday declares the rules:
Japan says sex slave issue not a diplomatic topic after Obama comments
Japan warned the issue of its wartime system of sex slavery was not a “diplomatic” subject, after U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday called it a “terrible” violation of human rights.
Katsunobu Kato, deputy chief cabinet secretary, said Japan was aware of the suffering of the victims and was trying to avoid politicizing the emotional issue.
“Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said he is deeply pained to think of the people who experienced immeasurable pain and suffering,” Kato said in a television program.
“This issue should not be made into a political or diplomatic subject,” he said.
While Xinhua fires a counterblast:
Wartime documents show details of Japanese atrocities
A total of 89 wartime documents made public on Friday show details of atrocities Japanese troops committed in China during World War Two (WWII).
The files, once kept by the invading Japanese army in Northeast China, are a response to Japan’s right-wing politicians’ denial of Japan’s wartime crimes in China, experts said.
The documents represent only a small portion of the nearly 100,000 wartime Japanese files retrieved underground during construction work in the early 1950s, said Yin Huai, president of the Jilin Provincial Archives in Changchun, capital of Jilin Province. Ninety percent of the files are in Japanese.
The latest development in the ongoing debacle that is Fukushimnapocalypse Now! via the Asahi Shimbun:
Doubts raised over ‘world’s strictest’ claim for new nuclear safety standards
Lawmakers and experts are questioning the Abe administration’s claims that its new safety standards for nuclear power plants are rigorous enough to allow restarts of the country’s reactors, all of which have been suspended as a consequence of the Fukushima nuclear crisis.
Earlier this month, the Cabinet approved its new basic energy plan, which states idled reactors that are judged to meet the “world’s strictest standards,” set by the Nuclear Regulation Authority, will be allowed to resume operations.
However, even NRA members and politicians within Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party are doubting the accuracy of the assertion, as his administration has not presented a firm basis for the description.
“The assertion that the standards are ‘the world’s strictest’ is a lie,” a senior LDP official said. “That is mere lip service to allow the restart of reactors.”
And from Kyodo News, a notable protest:
Antinuclear groups launch indefinite sit-in in Taiwan
A coalition of antinuclear groups began an indefinite sit-in in Taipei on Saturday to mark the 28th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Despite heavy rain, thousands of people gathered Saturday afternoon on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office to press the government to stop the problem-plagued construction of a fourth nuclear power plant in earthquake-prone Taiwan.
They also demanded speedy decommissioning of the three existing nuclear plants and lowering the legal threshold for a public referendum.
From the Asahi Shimbun, a hint of things to come:
Government panel raises possibility of magnitude-8 quake striking Kanto
The government’s Earthquake Research Committee is giving a much greater probability that a magnitude-8 earthquake could hit the heavily populated Kanto region within the next 30 years.
Under the revised estimate released April 25, experts believe there is now a 5-percent probability that a maximum magnitude-8.6 quake could strike along the Sagami Trough, which stretches from Sagami Bay, off the coast of Kanagawa Prefecture, to an area off the coast of Chiba Prefecture.
That compares to the estimate made in 2004, when the probability of a magnitude-7.9 quake striking within 30 years was set at 0.8 percent.
While Businessweek covers another kind of nuclear debacle closer to home:
A Botched Plan to Turn Nuclear Warheads Into Fuel
The project is vastly over budget: The Department of Energy has sunk about $5 billion into it so far and estimates it will cost an additional $6 billion to $7 billion to finish the plant, plus an additional $20 billion or so to turn the plutonium into fuel over 15 years. In its 2015 budget request released in March, the Department of Energy announced it will place the MOX project on “cold standby,” effectively mothballing the project for the foreseeable future. “It’s a major fiasco,” says Edwin Lyman, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Billions of taxpayer dollars have been wasted. It’s a classic boondoggle.”
The MOX plant is the latest blunder for the Department of Energy, which has a reputation for mismanaging big, complicated projects, particularly those related to nuclear energy. Costs for a nuclear waste treatment plant in Washington State have nearly tripled to $13 billion. A uranium processing facility in Tennessee once estimated to cost around $1 billion is now tipping the scales at around $11 billion, according to an Army Corps of Engineers study. It’s also running about 20 years behind schedule. A Department of Energy spokesman declined to comment for this article.
From MintPress News , another fuel, another set of problems, noted by someone who ought to know:
‘Straight From The Horse’s Mouth’: Former Oil Exec Says Fracking Not Safe
Retired Mobil VP confirms technology is dangerous and untested.
In a message “straight from the horse’s mouth,” a former oil executive on Tuesday urged New York state to pass a ban on the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, saying, ‘it is not safe.’
“Making fracking safe is simply not possible, not with the current technology, or with the inadequate regulations being proposed,” Louis Allstadt, former executive vice president of Mobil Oil, said during a news conference in Albany called by the anti-fracking group Elected Officials to Protect New York.
Up until his retirement in 2000, Allstadt spent 31 years at Mobil, running its marketing and refining division in Japan and managing Mobil’s worldwide supply, trading and transportation operations. After retiring to Cooperstown, NY, Allstadt said he began studying fracking after friends asked him if he thought it would be safe to have gas wells drilled by nearby Lake Otsego, where Allstadt has a home. Since that time, he’s become a vocal opponent of the shale oil and gas drilling technique.
CNN covers more fracking woes, this time in Decatur, Texas, some 60 miles outside Dallas:
Texas family plagued with ailments gets $3M in 1st-of-its-kind fracking judgment
After a two-week trial that ended Tuesday — Earth Day, coincidentally — a Dallas jury awarded the Parr family $2.9 million for personal injury and property damages in the family’s lawsuit against Plano-based Aruba Petroleum Inc.
According to the lawsuit, Aruba Petroleum had 22 natural gas wells within a 2-mile radius of the Parrs’ property, with three wells in close proximity to their Texas home. The closest was 791 feet away.
As a result of poor management and lack of emission controls, Aruba Petroleum created a “private nuisance” to the Parr family by producing harmful air pollution and exposing them to harmful emissions of volatile organic compounds, toxic air pollutants and diesel exhaust, the lawsuit said.
CBS News covers still more fracking woes:
Ohio geologists link small earthquakes to fracking
State geologists in Ohio have for the first time linked earthquakes in a geologic formation deep under the Appalachians to gas drilling, leading the state to issue new permit conditions in certain areas that are among the nation’s strictest.
A state investigation of five small tremors in the Youngstown area, in the Appalachian foothills, last month has found the high-pressure injection of sand and water that accompanies hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in the Utica Shale may have increased pressure on a small, unknown fault, said State Oil & Gas Chief Rick Simmers. He called the link “probable.”
While earlier studies had linked earthquakes in the same region to deep-injection wells used for disposal of fracking wastewater, this marks the first time tremors have been tied directly to fracking, Simmers said. Five seismic events in March were all part of what was considered a single event and couldn’t be easily felt by people.
And for our final item, CBC News covers the latest threat to global health, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome:
MERS spread by travellers ‘very likely,’ WHO warns
Given potential to initially miss MERS cases, health-care workers encouraged to wear masks
Countries should be on the lookout for cases of MERS in people returning from Middle Eastern countries affected by the virus, the World Health Organization says in an updated risk assessment of the new coronavirus.
The number of known infections has skyrocketed in recent days, with Saudi Arabia alone reporting 48 cases on Wednesday and Thursday. In the 20 months since the world became aware a new coronavirus was infecting people, there has not been a single month where the total cases from all affected countries was as high as that two-day tally.
In the past two weeks alone cases were exported to Greece, Malaysia, Jordan and the Philippines, the global health agency said, warning that the virus may pop up in various parts of the globe carried by people who have been to countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
“It is very likely that cases will continue to be exported to other countries, through tourists, travellers, guest workers or pilgrims, who might have acquired the infection following an exposure to the animal or environmental source, or to other cases, in a hospital for instance,” Thursday’s risk assessment said.
