Today’s headlines from the realms of politics, economics, and the environment is chock full of nuts, especially the sort whose greed imperils us all.
The Christian Science Monitor gives us the first of several headlines with warnings about the future of the Golden State, starting with an alarm about one the state’s most populous conservative county:
As California wildfire season looms, one county stands out as unprepared
San Diego stands out as “easily one of the least prepared [counties] in the entire country,” even though it is one of the most fire-prone regions of the state, says Richard Halsey, president of the California Chaparral Institute in Escondido.
Some blame county taxpayers for refusing to add fees that would boost local firefighting efforts. Others say political leaders have not provided taxpayers with a plan worth supporting.
With high temperatures and drought prevailing in California, the issue carries perhaps even more urgency than usual this summer. If new fires break out in San Diego, other areas of the state – and perhaps the country – might have to step in.
“San Diego County’s astonishing lack of professional firefighting units … means they are off-loading their responsibilities on other taxpayers across the state who pay to protect them and to protect them in landscapes that are fire-prone, fire-created,” says Char Miller, professor of environmental analysis at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif.
From Business Insider, fracking dreams evaporate, casting dark shadows on the dreams of California’s born again neoliberal chief executive:
California Is In An Extremely Awkward Position Now That The Government Says Most Of Its Shale Oil Is Unrecoverable
There now appears to be just 600 million barrels of recoverable tight oil in the state’s vast Monterey shale play — a downward revision of 96% from the agency’s 2011 estimate.
The state had pinned its hopes on a March 2013 USC study that argued tapping the Monterey could create up to 2.8 million jobs by 2020 and add up to $25 billion to state and local tax revenue. “Californians drive 332 billion, that’s billion miles a year, fed almost entirely by oil products, so we have got to start hammering at the demand, as well as the sources of fossil fuel,” California Governor Jerry Brown told CNN Sunday.
In September 2013, Brown — often labeled as having a thumb as green as Shrek’s — signed into law a bill that allowed the small-scale fracking that already occurs in to continue, with a view toward one day tapping what was thought to be Monterey’s vast and accessible deposits.
Brown’s office had no comment Wednesday.
From the San Francisco Chronicle, more signs of tough times ahead:
As Central Valley fog disappears, fruit, nut crops decline
The soupy thick tule fog that regularly blanketed the Central Valley and terrorized unsuspecting motorists during the winter has been slowly disappearing over the past three decades, a UC Berkeley study has found.
The blinding mists may not be missed by those who remember white-knuckle drives in zero visibility and regular multiple-car pileups, but the fog dearth is bad news for farmers, according to a study published this month in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
“It is jeopardizing fruit growing in California,” said Dennis Baldocchi, a biometeorologist at UC Berkeley and lead author of the study. “We’re getting much lower yields.”
From the Oakland Tribune, standing up to Obama’s anti-immigrant agenda:
East Bay sheriffs to release immigrants held for feds
Joining a national trend of resisting the Obama administration’s deportation dragnet, the sheriffs of Alameda and Contra Costa counties said they are immediately releasing all inmates whose sole reason for being held is their immigration status.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement makes about 1,000 requests to Alameda County’s Santa Rita Jail each year to hand over immigrants arrested on other charges and suspected of being in the country illegally, but “now we won’t be honoring any of them,” Sheriff Greg Ahern said in an interview Wednesday. “We’re not going to be honoring the ICE holds unless they’re backed by the order of a judge.”
Contra Costa County Sheriff David Livingston said Wednesday he implemented an identical order last week. San Mateo County Sheriff Greg Munks is contemplating a similar policy but plans to allow for case-by-case exceptions for immigrants who “pose significant public safety risks.”
From the Los Angeles Times, a legal revolt:
Counties sue narcotics makers, alleging ‘campaign of deception’
Two California counties sued five of the world’s largest narcotics manufacturers on Wednesday, accusing the companies of causing the nation’s prescription drug epidemic by waging a “campaign of deception” aimed at boosting sales of potent painkillers such as OxyContin.
Officials from Orange and Santa Clara counties — both hit hard by overdose deaths, emergency room visits and escalating medical costs associated with prescription narcotics — contend the drug makers violated California laws against false advertising, unfair business practices and creating a public nuisance.
In sweeping language reminiscent of the legal attack against the tobacco industry, the lawsuit alleges the drug companies have reaped blockbuster profits by manipulating doctors into believing the benefits of narcotic painkillers outweighed the risks, despite “a wealth of scientific evidence to the contrary.” The effort “opened the floodgates” for such drugs and “the result has been catastrophic,” the lawsuit contends.
BBC News hauls out the chopper:
Hewlett-Packard to cut up to 16,000 more jobs
Technology giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) announced an 18% rise in profits to $1.3bn for the second quarter in statement that was accidently released before US stock markets closed.
But the firm said that despite rising profits, it plans to lay off an additional 11,000 to 16,000 workers. HP had previously announced it would cut 34,000 jobs as part of a restructuring announced in 2012.
Shares in HP fell after the early release of the news.
Hypocrisy between the buns, via the Guardian:
McDonald’s CEO insists fast-food giant pays ‘fair wages’ as protesters rally
Demonstrators stage second day of protest as chief executive Don Thompson sees off shareholder vote on $9.5m pay package
McDonald’s offers “real careers” and “competitive wages”, CEO Don Thompson told shareholders on Thursday, as hundreds of protesters chanted for better pay outside the fast-food giant’s annual meeting.
As demonstrators staged a second day of protests against the company’s wage scale outside the company’s suburban Chicago headquarters, Thompson told shareholders: “We believe we pay fair and competitive wages.”
“I know we have people outside,” said Thompson. “I think that McDonald’s provides more opportunity than any other company … We continue to believe that we pay fair and competitive wages,” he said.
A thoroughly tamed electorate, via EUbusiness:
Muted US opposition to Atlantic trade treaty
Europeans have met US-EU negotiations for an ambitious transatlantic free trade zone with a wave of open hostility, but in the United States, the opposition has been muted.
Only a handful of opponents could be seen Wednesday as officials from both sides met this week for the fifth round of negotiations in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington.
“The more we learn about this agreement the more we understand why the US and the EU are holding its contents so close to the vest,” said Ilana Solomon of the environmental group Sierra Club.
Like in Europe, fears have mounted among US activists over the broad scope of liberalization under the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which will cover rules on investment, trade, agriculture, health and the environment.
The worries, though, have not carried far outside a small circle of civil society activists, even though the talks have been going on for nearly a year.
From Inside Criminal Justice, something we could’ve told ‘em, having done a major bookie investigation years ago:
Study: Organized Crime Launders Billions Through Bets
Organized crime operations use sports betting as a tool for laundering $140 billion worldwide each year, according to a new study by Paris’ Pantheon-Sorbonne University and the Qatar-based International Center for Sport Security.
The review of global sports gambling scandals during the last three years found that soccer is by far the most frequently corrupted sport.
As the Internet spread during the last two decades, the gambling industry has boomed, according to the report, and regulatory agencies have been unable to keep pace.
From ANSAmed, neoliberals greasing skids for the race to the bottom:
UAE: the World Free Zones Organization (WFZO) is born
New 14-member body to oversee free-trade zones around the globe
The brand-new World Free Zones Organization (WFZO), a multinational body with 14 founding member countries, was inaugurated in Dubai ceremony at the weekend.
Representing free-trade zones in Africa, China, Europe, Latin America, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States, the WFZO aims to standardize their business methods and analytical parameters, making them available to members, governments, businesses, and analysts.
‘’It is a platform for debating issues in common and for learning from mutual experience’‘, explained WFZO Chairman Mohammed al-Zarooni.
On to Europe, starting with election news from EUobserver:
EU elections under way in Netherlands and UK
The 2014 EU elections got under way in The Netherlands and in the UK on Thursday (22 May), with Dutch voters starting at 7.30am local time and British voters at 8am British time.
The results will not be available until Sunday night – to be published at the same moment as pan-EU numbers, so that the outcome in early member states does not influence voting in latecomers.
But Dutch exit polls are expected already at 9pm on Thursday evening.
From the London Telegraph, allegations of suicide by currency, via the European Monetary Union [EMU]:
Europe’s centre crumbles as Socialists immolate themselves on altar of EMU
Francois Hollande must be willing to rock the European Project to its foundations, and even to risk a rupture of the euro. This he cannot bring himself to do
By a horrible twist of fate, Europe’s political Left has become the enforcer of reactionary economic policies. The great socialist parties of the post-war era have been trapped by the corrosive dynamics of monetary union, apologists for mass unemployment and a 1930s deflationary regime that subtly favour the interests of elites.
One by one, they are paying the price. The Dutch Labour Party that fathered the “Polder Model” and ran Holland for half a century has lost its bastions of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht, its support dwindling to 10pc as it meekly ratifies austerity policies that have led to debt deflation and left 25pc of mortgages in negative equity.
Contractionary policies are poisonous for countries leveraged to the hilt. Dutch household debt has risen from 230pc to 250pc of disposable income since 2008, while British debt has fallen from 151pc to 133pc over the same period. This calamitous development in the Netherlands is almost entirely result of the EMU policy structure, yet the Dutch Labour Party has no coherent critique because its pro-EU reflexes compel near-silence.
CNNMoney casts a different slant:
Europe’s own ‘tea party’ risk
Europe has enjoyed a period of calm after years of crisis, but a predicted big protest vote in regional elections this week could shake markets out of their complacency.
Polls open Thursday for voters to elect members of the European Parliament, representing 500 million citizens. They’re expected to back protest parties of right and left in greater numbers than ever before.
A backlash against austerity, unemployment, immigration and loss of national power to European institutions could push anti-EU parties to win about 25% of the 751 seats. In some of the 28 countries, they could even secure the biggest share of the vote.
While that won’t derail the region’s recovery in the near term, it could store up future trouble by destabilizing pro-EU governments in some countries and weakening the resolve of others to stick to painful economic reforms.
On to Britain and some fracktastic news from the London Telegraph:
Fracking planned for Tory heartlands as report reveals billions of barrels of shale oil in southern England
Report to show vast potential for shale oil in the South as ministers unveil planned law change to allow fracking under homes without owners’ permission
Vast areas of southern England will on Friday be identified by the Government as targets for fracking, with ministers also announcing that energy companies will be allowed to frack under homes without owners’ permission.
A British Geological Survey study of the South, spanning from Wiltshire to Kent and including the South Downs National Park, will be published, mapping out the likely location of billions of barrels of shale oil.
Ministers are also preparing to publish controversial plans to change the laws of trespass to give energy companies an automatic right to frack beneath homes and private land – even if owners object.
Norway next, and bad news for cetaceans from TheLocal.no:
Norway to ‘work harder’ to sell whale to Japan
Norway’s fishing minister has pledged to work harder to restart exports of whale meat to Japan, after one of the country’s leading chroniclers of the whaling industry warned that it could die out within ten years.
“We have Japan as a potential export country,” Elisabeth Aspaker told Norway’s NRK channel. “We must see if we can work harder to promote it.”
Frank A. Jenssen, a journalist and author who has written extensively on whaling, told NRK that the industry and the communities which depend on it were in crisis.
“At worst, if it does not become easier to sell whale meat, I fear that this tradition and industry will die out,” he told the television channel. “In about ten to 15 years, there may be no whalers left in Norway, and that would be a tragedy.”
Early Dutech electoral indications from euronews:
Wilders’ anti-EU party pushed to fourth place in Netherlands exit polls
Exit polls in the Netherlands indicate that the anti-EU Freedom Party (PVV) of Geert Wilders has come fourth in elections for the European Parliament.
Dutch public television reported that the party who had been leading opinion polls for months may have failed to secure second place, gaining around 12% of the vote trailing the Christian Democrats and the social-liberal D66 parties who were competing for the top spot.
Germany next, and creeping imperialism from New Europe:
German cabinet adopts new Africa strategy
In February, Germany’s parliament approved boosting the country’s troop presence in Mali
The German cabinet has adopted a new Africa strategy, showing willingness for a greater German involvement in Africa, German media N-TV reported on Wednesday.
In the new Africa policy, Germany’s ruling coalition government expressed willingness to help prevent armed conflicts on the continent at an early stage in the future.
In addition to training missions, which would help African countries solve crisis more independently, Germany said it was also ready to send more troops to Africa if necessary.
France next, and tough times for Franky the Fop from Al Jazeera English:
France’s left is through with Hollande
Angered by austerity and economic stagnation, fewer than one in five French approve of the Socialist president.
French civil servants’ salaries have not been reassessed since July 2010. The freeze, which began under the right-wing government of former president Nicolas Sarkozy, is now part of the left-wing government’s plan to cut public spending and boost economic growth.
According to the national statistics agency INSEE, the French economy stagnated in the first quarter of 2014, with zero growth between January and March. “It doesn’t matter,” said French Finance Minister Michel Sapin on Thursday. “The [growth] forecast by the IMF for France is one percent, so we’re dealing with figures that are perfectly reasonable goals.”
Sapin added that he was confident that the overall growth in 2014 would be “clearly above zero”, although admitted it “will not be enough”. With growth so weak and the unemployment rate and budget deficit so high, the government has no plans to increase the wages of civil servants in the near future.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said that without any clear sign of growth, the pay freeze will continue until 2017. “The efforts required must be fair and equitably distributed among all the French,” he said in a letter addressed to the unions on Tuesday.
Next, Deutsche Welle covers a comeback strategy from his predecessor:
France’s Sarkozy urges two-speed Europe and a different migration policy
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for big changes to EU structures, calling the idea of Eurozone economies’ equal rights a “myth”. He also lashed out at the EU’s current migration policies.
On Thursday, Nicolas Sarkozy weighed into the European Parliament election campaign by pressing for changes to the 28-member bloc’s structure.
The conservative former French leader, who is widely expected to seek re-election in 2017, argued for a profound overhaul of EU institutions in an editorial for the weekly news magazine Le Point.
He called the idea of all eurozone nations being of equal weight a “myth”, and proposed the creation of a large Franco-German economic zone at the heart of the euro area to reflect what he called a “two-speed Europe.”
From TheLocal.fr, out of sight, out of mind?:
French cops to bulldoze Calais migrant camps
Police in northern France plan to dismantle a series of improvised migrant camps, including one dubbed the “Syrian Camp”, after an outbreak of scabies. It’s part of the ongoing tension in the city of Calais where thousands of immigrants have massed with hopes of reaching the UK.
Social workers were outraged on Thursday following an announcement from the top police authority in Calais, in northern France, several migrant camps would be cleared from the town’s port by “next week”.
Following a meeting with humanitarian groups on Wednesday local Prefect Denis Robin told reporters: “I’m going to close three camps on public property at the port next week. It is out of the question that we encourage the setting up of a jungle.”
From the Guardian, a new supergrass:
Camorra mafia ‘super boss’ Antonio Iovine turns state witness
One of four bosses of Casalesi clan within Camorra mafia is collaborating with investigators in Naples, Italian media says
A so-called super boss of a powerful clan within the Camorra mafia has turned state witness and is collaborating with investigators in Naples, Italian media reported on Thursday.
Antonio Iovine, one of the four bosses of the infamous Casalesi clan, started answering the questions of anti-mafia prosecutors earlier this month, La Repubblica wrote. The Naples daily Il Mattino declared it “a historic choice”.
Aged 49, but known to all as o’ninno (the baby) for his youthful face and his rapid ascent of the Casalesi power structure, Iovine is thought to have effectively led the business side of the clan’s activities before his arrest in 2010 and subsequent jailing for life.
Reactions from the Independent:
Mobster turned informant Antonio Iovine sends shockwaves through Naples’ crime families
The decision by one of the Camorra’s most senior figures to turn informant has sent shockwaves through the Naples crime syndicate.
The jailed mobster, Antonio Iovine, dubbed the Camorra’s “economy minister”, is now spilling the secrets of the brutal mafia group, it was reported today. And not only clan members are risk; now that “the first real boss” of the crime group has decided to cooperate with the authorities, “an entire generation” of mafia associates risks being “swept away”, according to La Repubblica newspaper.
The Camorra’s accomplices are thought to include crooked politicians, civil servants and businessmen, who collude with its moneyspinning activities including illegal dumping, extortion, drug running and prostitution. Iovine was captured in November 2010 after 14 years on the run. But the first real breakthrough in getting the mafia boss to talk occurred within the past two weeks. With prosecutors Antonello Ardituro and Caesar Sirignano having applied careful pressure over a period of three years, Iovine finally cracked and began giving page after page of verbal evidence.
TheLocal.it calls for lighting up:
Rome mayor backs decriminalizing cannabis
Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino on Wednesday said he was in favour of decriminalizing cannabis, calling for a national and international reform on drug laws in order to fight organized crime.
The city mayor said he was “in favour of the possibility of the liberalization of cannabis for medical or personal use.” He was speaking at the Eighth Annual Conference of the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy in Rome.
Beyond the capital he also advocated broader reform of drug laws both in Italy and abroad.
“Decriminalization of marijuana must be considered a starting point, because years of prohibition have brought no results in the prevention of a dramatic increase in drug use,” Marino was quoted in Il Messaggero as saying.
From ANSA.it, real GDP:
Economic value of prostitution in 2014 GDP accounts
Statistical agency to measure illegal drugs, cigarettes
The economic value of prostitution, illegal drug sales, and trafficking in contraband cigarettes and alcohol will all be measured by Italy’s national statistical agency Istat as it calculates the country’s 2014 gross domestic production (GDP), it announced Thursday.
Istat said that starting in September, its 2014 economic measurements will include those three areas of illegal activities, in line with methodology being applied in measuring national accounts within the European Union.
The move updates the previous system of national account measures implemented in 1995, Istat said in a news release. Eurostat, the EU’s statistical agency, has provided guidelines that will include an estimate of accounts for illegal activities including prostitution, contraband cigarettes and alcohol, and illegal drug trafficking.
From TheLocal.it, woes for Bunga Bunga Junior:
Prosecutors seek jail term for Berlusconi’s son
Prosecutors in Milan have asked for Silvio Berlusconi’s elder son, Pier Silvio, to be sentenced to three years and two months in jail for alleged tax fraud at the family’s Mediaset empire.
Prosecutors Fabio De Pasquale and Sergio Spadaro are also seeking a three year and two month jail term for Fedele Confalonieri, Mediaset’s chairman, for his alleged involvement in the financial wrongdoing that relates to the trading of TV rights at the company’s subsidiary, Mediatrade, the Italian edition of Huffington Post reported.
The men are accused of tax fraud amounting to millions of euros in 2003 and 2004, when the telemarketing unit was based in Milan.
Striking news from TheLocal.it:
Italy’s newsstands set to empty as strike hits
A national strike of printing press workers on Thursday, prompted by a row over pensions, will see newsstands across the country emptied of newspapers on Friday.
Ink ran dry at Italy’s printing presses on Thursday, as labour unions united to force newspapers to temporarily run out of print. As a result none of Italy’s daily newspapers, such as La Repubblica and La Stampa, will be published on Friday, Italian media reported.
According to unions the government has failed to protect industry workers who were left without a pension following reforms in 2012, the newspaper said
After the jump, the latest from Greece [including campaign news], Russian sanctions beneficiaries, more Brazilian pre-World Cup blues, Thai coup consolidation, more Chinese bubble warnings, Sony fine tunes, environmental disasters, and the latest from Fukushimapocalypose Now!. . .
For our first Greek headline, a bankster benediction from To Vima:
Fitch Ratings optimistic about the future of the Greek economy
Official estimations on the outlook of Greek economy published on Friday – Ministry of Finances reserved
Fitch Ratings has evaluated the Greek economy with a “B-“ and a steady outlook, based on recent financial developments in Greece, where the banks managed attract 8.3 billion euros worth of capital.
The rating agency is expected to announce its estimations regarding the Greek economy on Friday, with market analysts arguing that Fitch will upgrade Greece’s credit rating and outlook.
Despite the good news, the Ministry of Finances is reserved, as it points out that Fitch Ratings has already given a higher rating compared to other rating agencies, such as Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s.
Pre-poll polling from To Vima:
SYRIZA has 2.5% lead over New Democracy in latest polls
Golden Dawn comes in third place, followed by the Oliver Three and River party who are tied in forth
When asked about who they feel is more suitable for the position of Prime Minister, 34% supporte Antonis Samaras, 27% are in favor of Alexis Tsipras, while a 37% claimed “none of the above” and 2% refused to give an answer.
The survey also showed that 44% of voters believed that SYRIZA was going to come first in the elections, 37% answered New Democracy, 7% responded tat a different party would come first and 10% refused to answer.
Hysteria from the regime from ANA-MPA:
PM Samaras: Tsipras ‘is the accident we must all prevent on Sunday’
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, ratcheting up the tension in the run-up to the European elections, launched a withering attack against main opposition leader Alexis Tsipras, head of the Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA), from the northwestern Greek city of Ioannina on Thursday.
“Tsipras is not a threat for Greece. He is the accident that must not happen. This is the accident we must all prevent on Sunday,” he emphasised in a pre-election speech, two days ahead of Sunday’s elections.
In dramatic tones, Samaras accused Tsipras of acting “dangerously and irresponsibly” in proclaiming the European elections a “referendum” and of “wanting to topple the government, at all costs”. He also emphasised that, two days before the elections, no one could pretend to be unaware what was happening and stressed that he had not allowed anyone “to question Greece’s political stability and the determination of the Greek people to proceed boldly forward.”
Keep Talking Greece covers a conversion:
FinMin Stournaras saw the light before elections: “It’s time for the rich to pay”
Incredibly short before the elections, Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras saw the light. Two years after running Greece’s finances, Stournaras realized that it was the employees and pensioners bearing the load of over taxation and coming up for the obligations of the debt-ridden country.
“It’s time for the rich to pay,” Stournaras told private ANT1 TV on Wednesday adding that he was not happy about the results of the fight against tax evasion.
And he added another ‘bonus’ to the tax-drained Greek voters: “The emergency solidarity levy may be removed” – but after the elections, so when the budget for 2015 has been worked out.
But his own ousted staff revolts, via EnetEnglish.gr:
Sacked cleaning women barricade themselves inside finance ministry
Finance ministry cleaning staff demand court decision reinstating them be enforced
Sacked cleaning women are demanding their reinstatement after a May 16 court decision said they were illegally dismissed by the government
Dozens of women have barricaded themselves at the entrance to the finance ministry in central Athens, demanding that a recent court decision giving them back their cleaning jobs at the ministry be enforced.
Early on Thursday, a group of cleaners placed a chain and padlocked the doors to the ministry from within, while colleagues of theirs sat down in front of the building.
A large contingent of riot police is at the scene. It is understood that they have told the cleaners that they will intervene unless the protest ends.
From To Vima, a German stirs the pot:
Wolfgang Schäuble: “A Greek politician proposed the Grexit”
The German Minister of Finances commented on the recent string of revelations in the Financial Times
According to a new report by Mega Channel, the German Minister of Finances Wolfgang Schäuble revealed that the proposal for Greece to leave the Eurozone came from an unnamed Greek politician.
Mr. Schäuble, who was asked to comment on a recent series of revelations in the Financial Times, explained that his position at the time was that the Greek people suffered due to mistakes and omissions of the Greek elite.
The German Minister noted that “a Greek politician, whose democratic sentiments of accountability I doubt […] proposed for Greece to leave the Eurozone”. Mr. Schäuble added that “it is not [his] job to reveal the name” of the politician.
And some Germans with problems of their own, via Neos Kosmos:
German MPs implicated in Greek arms scandal
Newspaper claims they received bribes in excess of 5 million euros
Two former German MPs with the SPD party received payments in excess of 5 million euros from the company Krauss-Maffei-Wegmann (KMW) according to an article in Sueddeutsche Zeitung. According to the German newspaper the apparent bribes are connected with suspect deals struck by the Munich-based arms company in Greece.
“KMW secretly paid the consulting firm of two former parliamentarians of the SPD party over 5 million euros between 2000 and 2005,” the article writes, stressing that this, “was revealed in the context of an internal investigation related to two deals to supply armoured vehicles.”
The investigation was launched at the behest of KMW itself following allegations over bribery payments related to the company’s dealings in Greece.
While a coalition partner shows signs of stress, via EnetEnglish.gr:
Venizelos labels protesting small bondholders ‘fascistic’
Pasok leader accuses ruined small bondholders of a ‘fascistic mentality’ because they interrupted his campaign speech
Deputy Premier and Pasok leader Evangelos Venizelos lashes out at protesters who lost their money in the 2012 debt write-down that he engineered, describing their actions as ‘fascistic’
Deputy Premier Evangelos Venizelos denounced a small bondholders’ protest as ‘fascistic’ Deputy Premier Evangelos Venizelos denounced a small bondholders’ protest as ‘fascistic’ Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos denounced small bondholders who interrupted his campaign speech on Wednesday, accusing them of having a “fascistic mentality”.
A half dozen security guards descended on the small group of bondholders who denounced Venizelos’ 2012 debt write down, which deprived about 15,000 Greek citizens who bought Greek bonds as a secure deposit of their entire life savings.
Four small bondholders were taken to a local police station when the protesters were forcibly removed from the Benaki museum venue, though there was no physical violence on the part of the proteters.
More of the hyperbolic from Macropolis:
Jobs, hundreds of thousands of jobs
Jobs, jobs, jobs. Promises of jobs by the hundreds of thousands were flying around in the public debate in Greece over the last couple of days. Deputy Prime Minister and PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos suggested that around 920,000 jobs could be created in the next few years when he presented the party’s growth plan out. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras was a bit more conservative but equally generous when he pledged the creation of 770,000 jobs between now and 2020.
Greece has been under the troika’s cosh for exactly four years. The most devastating cost has been the loss of 1 million jobs. The unemployment rate peaked in September last year at 27.7 percent and the latest reading for February 2014 was at 26.5 percent. At the same time, the number of people in employment has decreased by more than 20 percent. Greece’s labour market has been devastated, like no other in any modern crisis.
Cyprus next, with Kathimerini English and petrodiplomacy:
Biden sees Cyprus as ‘key player’ in energy market
US Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday said Cyprus has the potential to become a “key player” in the Eastern Mediterranean and expressed Washington’s support for a resolution to new peace talks on the divided island.
“Cyprus is poised to become a key player… transforming the Eastern Mediterranean into a new global hub for natural gas,” Biden said on the second day of his visit to Nicosia after talks with President Nicos Anastasiades.
Biden, the first US vice president to visit the island in more than 50 years, said Washington stood ready to provide whatever support is necessary for a settlement, noting that such a breakthrough would lead to greater prosperity and security as well as opportunities for new generations. He added that it was “long past time… that all Cypriots are reunited in a bizonal, bicommunal federation,” but stressed that he had not visited Cyprus to “present or impose” a solution to the United Nations-mediated talks.
Russia next, and sanctions beneficiaries from PandoDaily:
Russia is driving out Visa and Mastercard, creating huge opportunity for domestic tech companies
It hasn’t been a good year for Western tech in Russia. First came Snowden whose NSA leaks confirmed Russia’s fears and spurred a clampdown on American Internet companies operating within its borders.
Then came the Ukrainian clusterfuck and the series of mini-sanctions forbidding American companies from dealing with some Russian banks and Putin’s oligarch chums.
The neocon master tacticians who run President Obama foreign policy thought the sanctions would begin erode Putin’s support among his business-oligarch base. After all, these oligarchs have countless billions of dollars hoarded overseas in banks and companies, and have the most to lose from widespread economic sanctions.
But – d’oh! — instead of handicapping Putin, the sanctions boosted his popularity and support. And now it looks like they’re helping prop up Russia’s domestic hi-tech sector.
Off to Africa and the latest from Libya via Al Jazeera English:
Libya renegade chief seeks emergency cabinet
Khalifa Haftar calls for civilian presidential high council to form emergency cabinet and organise parliamentary polls.
A renegade general, who has launched an assault against militias in Libya’s east, has warned that the country has become a “terrorist hub”, and called for a civilian presidential high council to form an emergency cabinet and organise legislative elections.
Claiming to speak in the name of the army, Khalifa Haftar urged Libya’s highest judicial authority on Wednesdsay “to form a civilian presidential high council tasked with forming an emergency cabinet and organising legislative elections”.
Speaking from the eastern town of Al Abyar, he said the presidential council he envisions would hand over power to an elected parliament.
Latin America next, and more pre-World Cup woes for Brazil from MintPress News:
Matching Up To The World Cup, Protests And Strikes Hit Brazil
The eyes of the world are turning to Brazil, a country gearing up to host the World Cup and grapple with protesters hoping to draw attention to their causes.
With a chorus of strikes from the labor unions of bus drivers, teachers and military police all culminating in the same week, Thursday’s events across 50 Brazilian cities marked the biggest show of protesters in recent memory.
Though calmer than last year’s waves of protests, which were rocked by clashes, vandalism and heavy-handed responses from security forces, momentum for large-scale protests has been building as the World Cup opener in São Paulo on June 12 draws near.
Most agree that with the world’s eyes turned toward Brazil, now is the time to spotlight the social problems gripping the country amid the $11 billion dollars reportedly being spent to host the event.
Asia next, and the latest That turmoil from the Buenos Aires Herald:
Thai military declares coup, clamps down on media
Thailand’s army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha seized control of the government in a coup two days after he declared martial law, saying the army had to restore order and push through reforms. The army has also clamped down on the media, including partisan television channels, and warned people not to spread inflammatory material on social media.
Prayuth made the announcement in a television broadcast after a meeting to which he had summoned the rival factions in Thailand’s drawn-out political conflict, apparently with the aim of finding a solution to six months of anti-government protests.
“In order for the situation to return to normal quickly and for society to love and be at peace again … and to reform the political, economic and social structure, the military needs to take control of power,” Prayuth said.
The military later declared a 10 p.m. until 5 a.m. curfew.
More from the Global Times:
Thai army chief convenes meeting of rivals
Thailand’s military convened crisis talks Wednesday between warring political rivals, vowing to stop the kingdom degenerating into another “Ukraine or Egypt” after imposing martial law to suppress months of street bloodshed.
US-led pressure grew for a return to civilian control but the Thai military, which has intervened repeatedly in politics down the decades, said it would respect international law and use force “only for issues of security”.
Television showed army chief General Prayut Chan-O-Cha chairing the meeting in Bangkok Wednesday afternoon.
Reaction from BBC News:
Thailand’s military criticised as coup takes hold
The US has led widespread international criticism of a military takeover in Thailand as the South-East Asian nation spent its first night under curfew.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said there was “no justification”, and $10m in bilateral aid could be suspended.
France and Germany condemned the coup, with the UN expressing serious concern.
China next with the latest troubles in China from Shanghai Daily:
Terrorist attack kills 31, injures 94 at Urumqi market
A MARKET attack in Urumqi that left at least 31 dead and 94 injured this morning was terrorist violence, according to authorities.
Two vehicles, without license plates, broke through roadside fences and plowed into people at an open air market at Park North Street near Renmin Park at 7:50am and explosive devices were set off, said a statement issued by the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region’s publicity department.
In response to the attack, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to severely punish terrorists and spare no efforts in maintaining stability.
From Want China Times, bubble worries:
Risks in China’s housing market concern us all
China’s housing market might experience a crisis as hard-landing risks are mounting in the economy. If the housing bubble bursts, the global market will be hit significantly.
If Taiwan’s economy declines and the unemployment rate increases due to the housing crisis in China, the country’s pro-independence camp will seize the chance to ignite anti-China sentiment, which will hurt the development of relations across the Taiwan Strait.
The real estate market in China is the most important industry in the global economy as it not only plays a critical role in economic development domestically, but it is also the pillar that sustains imports from other countries.
More bubble anxiety from CNBC:
‘Shadow’ could be 2007 all over again: Cashin
Though China’s manufacturing gauge reached a five-month high on Thursday, the world’s second-largest economy remains a major concern, veteran trader Art Cashin told CNBC.
“The shadow banking over there is potentially 2007 all over again if things don’t go properly,” said Cashin, director of floor operations at UBS.
Shadow banking refers to how financial intermediaries create credit by means that escape government oversight. Often, these financial instruments are highly complicated and unregulated. Credit default swaps, for example, are said to have led to the U.S. housing collapse that sparked the 2007-2009 financial crisis.
South China Morning Post covers an ominous privatization:
Ministry considers tendering environmental clean-up to private firms
Ministry weighing plan for local governments to outsource environmental management
The Ministry of Environmental Protection is considering a new policy to boost its use of private contractors, state media reported yesterday.
The move would allow the market economy to play a greater role in easing the country’s pollution woes.
It calls for local governments to commission services from private firms, including sewage treatment, waterway clean-ups, national park maintenance, remediation of contaminated soil and pollution monitoring, according to the Xinhua-controlled Economic Information Daily.
Big Pharma woes from TheLocal.ch:
Investigators probe Roche offices in China
Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Roche said on Thursday that Chinese investigators had paid a visit to its offices in the eastern city of Hangzhou, amid a crackdown on corruption in the country’s healthcare sector.
Roche said that the reason for the visit to its sales offices in the eastern city of Hangzhou on May 21st remained unclear.
“We will collaborate fully with authorities for any inquiries,” the world-leader in cancer drugs said in a statement, adding that its main sites in Beijing and Shanghai, had not received similar visits.
And from South China Morning Post, the not unexpected:
Hong Kong banks make money laundering easy for criminals, journalist tells court
Italian journalist tells court that city makes it easy to launder money through front companies
An Italian journalist who mounted an undercover operation to expose a suspected eastern European gangster told the District Court yesterday how easy it was to set up a money-laundering operation in Hong Kong.
Key prosecution witness Antonio Papaleo said he was hired by defendant Juraj Jariabka to come to Hong Kong with the express purpose of setting up front companies and opening bank accounts to launder the proceeds of crime.
Papaleo told the court he was able to register two companies using out-of-date documents and that a local bank – identified by the prosecution as Standard Chartered – was willing to open an account for him regardless.
Japan next, and comeback hopes for a once-legendary brand from Kyodo News:
Sony chief vows to complete restructuring in FY 2014
Sony Corp. President Kazuo Hirai vowed Thursday to complete a series of restructuring measures in the current business year through next March 31 by selling off the company’s personal computer business and drastically cutting costs to revive its flagging electronics operations.
“In order to bring Sony to a growth path from 2015 and make it a company that sustainably generates profits, we’ll consider this year the time to complete restructuring and thoroughly take measures (necessary to that end),” Hirai said at a press conference in Tokyo.
Sony has been taking a series of measures to turn around the slumping electronics business. Among such steps, it is spending more than 300 billion yen between April last year and next March to restructure the operation, hoping to realize a 100 billion yen cost reduction annually from fiscal 2015.
Next, Fukushimapocalypse Now!
From the Mainichi, a major win for the anxious:
Court recognizes ‘invasion of personal rights’ in ruling against reactor restarts
The Fukui District Court’s ruling that ordered against reactor restarts at the Oi nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture has acknowledged a possible “invasion of personal rights” of residents living within a 250-kilometer radius of the plant if a nuclear accident occurs.
The court’s May 21 decision, which ordered plant operator Kansai Electric Power Co. (KEPCO) not to restart the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors at the Oi nuclear plant in Oi, Fukui Prefecture, is certain to affect KEPCO’s plans for reactor restarts while safety screenings are under way by the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA). The screenings are based on new standards drawn up in the wake of the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant disaster.
Unlike any past rulings in similar lawsuits, the court recognized that the plant “poses a realistic, imminent danger in this quake-prone country” — taking the enormous effect of the Fukushima nuclear disaster into consideration. The lawsuit is one of the numerous cases filed with courts across the country contesting the safety of nuclear power plants in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
More, also from the Mainichi:
‘Justice is alive’: Jubilant plaintiffs, supporters hail ruling against reactor restarts
The Fukui District Court’s decision that ruled against restarting the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors at Kansai Electric Power Co. (KEPCO)’s Oi Nuclear Power Plant in Fukui Prefecture has delighted the residents who brought the case to the court.
Some 200 people — including the plaintiffs of the lawsuit and their supporters — erupted in cheers at the court after one of the plaintiffs held up a sheet of paper bearing a message, “Justice is alive,” after the court handed down the landmark ruling on May 21.
And recalcitrance from NHK WORLD:
Suga: No change in government nuclear policy
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga says there is no change to the government’s policy for the restart of nuclear plants, if their safety is confirmed by the Nuclear Regulation Authority.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Suga declined to comment on the court ruling against restarting the Ohi No.3 and No.4 reactors. He said that the government is not a party to the lawsuit.
Suga said the government is waiting for the results of the NRA’s screening now underway, based on what are said to be the toughest safety standards in the world.
He added the decision to resume operation should not be arbitrary, or involve government intentions, but instead be made objectively with safety as a priorit
From Mother Jones, other fuels, other problems — in this case, criminalization of public health information:
North Carolina GOP Pushes Unprecedented Bill to Jail Anyone Who Discloses Fracking Chemicals
As hydraulic fracturing ramps up around the country, so do concerns about its health impacts. These concerns have led 20 states to require the disclosure of industrial chemicals used in the fracking process.
North Carolina isn’t on that list of states yet—and it may be hurtling in the opposite direction.
On Thursday, three Republican state senators introduced a bill that would slap a felony charge on individuals who disclosed confidential information about fracking chemicals. The bill, whose sponsors include a member of Republican party leadership, establishes procedures for fire chiefs and health care providers to obtain chemical information during emergencies. But as the trade publication Energywire noted Friday, individuals who leak information outside of emergency settings could be penalized with fines and several months in prison.
“The felony provision is far stricter than most states’ provisions in terms of the penalty for violating trade secrets,” says Hannah Wiseman, a Florida State University assistant law professor who studies fracking regulations.
Scientific American messes with your sleep:
How Your Smartphone Messes with Your Brain—and Your Sleep
It’s not the Angry Birds, streaming videos, emails from your boss, or your Facebook updates that disturb your sleep when you spend an evening staring at your smartphone or tablet. OK, the apps can keep you glued to your screen until the wee hours, and that doesn’t help. But it is the specific type of light from that screen that is throwing off your natural sleep-wake cycles, even after you power down. In a new video from Reactions: Everyday Chemistry, a sleep researcher explains the eerie power of blue light over your brain.
Cells at the back of your eyes pick up particular light wavelengths and, with a light-sensitive protein called melanopsin, signal the brain’s master clock, which controls the body’s circadian rhythms. Blue light, which in nature is most abundant in the morning, tells you to get up and get moving. Red light is more common at dusk and it slows you down. Now, guess what kind of light is streaming from that little screen in your hand at 11:59 P.M.? “Your iPad, your phone, your computer emit large quantities of blue light,” says sleep researcher and chemist Brian Zoltowski of Southern Methodist University
The results of staring at them are tiresomely predictable. Think about that when you are tossing and turning in bed a few hours later.
And the accompanying video:
From China Daily, shouldn’t this have been done first?:
Britain set to launch the world’s largest research on the effect of radio waves on children.
British researchers are launching the world’s largest study to investigate whether using mobile phones and other wireless gadgets might affect children’s brain development. The Study of Cognition, Adolescents and Mobile Phones, or SCAMP project, will focus on cognitive functions, such as memory and attention, which continue to develop into adolescence-just the age when teenagers start to own and use personal phones.
While there is no convincing evidence that radio waves from mobile phones affect health, to date most scientific research has focused on adults and the potential risk of brain cancers.
Because of that, scientists are uncertain as to whether children’s developing brains may be more vulnerable than adult brains-partly because their nervous systems are still developing, and partly because they are likely to have a higher cumulative exposure over their lifetimes.
And for our final item, opposing the lobby from EUbusiness:
Sweden to sue EU for delay on hormone disrupting chemicals
Sweden on Thursday said it would sue the European Commission over a delay in identifying harmful chemicals in everyday products, which it blamed on chemical industry lobbying.
“This (delay) is due to the European chemical lobby, which put pressure again on different Commissioners,” Swedish Environment Minister Lena Ek told AFP.
The Commission was due to set criteria by December 2013 to identify endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in thousands of products — including disinfectants, pesticides and toiletries — which have been linked to cancers, birth defects and development disorders in children.
“Hormone disrupters are becoming a huge problem,” said Ek, explaining that Sweden and Denmark had written to the Commission to demand action but to little avail.
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