The Greek government capitulated on Thursday to demands from its creditors for severe austerity measures in return for a modest debt write-off, raising hopes that a rescue deal could be signed at an emergency meeting of EU leaders on Sunday.
Athens is understood to have put forward a package of reforms and public spending cuts worth €13bn (£9.3bn) to secure a third bailout from creditors that could raise $50bn and allow it to stay inside the currency union.
A cabinet meeting signed off the reform package after ministers agreed that the dire state of the economy and the debilitating closure of the country’s banks meant it had no option but to agree to almost all the creditors terms.
Parliament is expected to endorse the package after a frantic few days of negotiation that followed a landmark referendum last Sunday in which Greek voters backed the radical leftist Syriza government’s call for debt relief.
Syriza, which is in coalition with the rightwing populist Independent party, is expected to meet huge opposition from within its own ranks and from trade unions and youth groups that viewed the referendum as a vote against any austerity.
report the guardian
American socialist: Bernie Sanders’ long shot presidential campaign gains steam
Hillary Clinton’s path to the nomination is uncontested no longer. Senator Bernie Sanders is drawing huge crowds and gaining in the polls. But can a democratic socialist win over America? Spencer Kimball reports.
It’s a dirty word in American politics. But Bernie Sanders embraces it.
“I wouldn’t deny it, not for one second, ” Sanders told the Washington Post when he was running for Vermont’s senate seat back in 2006. “I’m a democratic socialist.”
Sanders is not a conventional American politician. He’s the longest serving independent in the history of the US Congress. Though he’s long worked with Democrats, Sanders officially joined the party just this year to challenge Hillary Clinton for the presidential nomination.
Initially considered a fringe candidate, he’s defying expectations. In May, Sanders trailed Clinton by 45 percent in Iowa, a key early primary state. He’s reduced the margin to 19 percent. In New Hampshire, the Vermont senator is behind by only eight points.
Sanders drew a crowd of some 10,000 people in Madison, Wisconsin earlier this month. It was easily one of the largest rallies of the 2016 campaign to date – in either party. And he’s no one-hit wonder. On Monday, he drew more than 7,000 people in Portland, Maine.
“No one in the White House will have the power to take on Wall Street alone, corporate America alone, the billionaire classes alone,” Sanders told his supporters in Maine.
“The only way that change takes place is when we develop that strong grassroots movement, make that political revolution, stand together, and then we bring about change,” he said.
Scandinavian America
What would the US look like after Sanders’ political revolution? Think Scandinavia – Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
“In those countries health care is a right of all people, in those countries college education, graduate school is free, in those countries retirement benefits, child care are stronger than in the United States of America,” Sanders said in an interview on the Sunday morning talk show This Week.
“In those countries, by and large, the government works for ordinary people and the middle class rather than, as is the case right now in our country, for the billionaire class,” Sanders said.
It’s a message that appeals to progressives. But will the broader American public support a self-proclaimed democratic socialist who wants the nation to look more like northern Europe?
“This is a country that had a McCarthy era and a red scare,” John Nichols, Washington correspondent for “The Nation” magazine, told DW. “It had red baiting and attacks on socialists, that’s part of our media life even in recent years.”
Challenging economic orthodoxy
Nichols has covered Sanders for years and introduced the Vermont senator at his packed rally in Wisconsin. Though America is very different from Europe structurally and economically, Nichols believes the country is ripe for the populist anti-austerity message that has swept the Old Continent in recent months, and Sanders is trying to tap into that sentiment.
According to Gallup, two out of every three Americans are dissatisfied with the way wealth is distributed in the United States. It’s a bi-partisan issue. Three-quarters of Democrats and even 54 percent of Republicans are concerned about income inequality.
“There’s space in the 2016 race for messages that really do challenge the economic orthodoxies of the United States,” Nichols said.
Generational gap
While the older baby-boom generation is more invested in the status quo and came of age when the socialist label was taboo, Alexandra Reckendorf believes the younger millennial generation is more open to radical change.
“They’re a little bit more compassionate and empathetic on these issues of economic inequality,”
Reckendorf, an expert on US politics at Virginia Commonwealth University, told DW. “A lot of them either find themselves in that boat or are still young and idealistic enough to think that these changes could work.”
Young Americans have racked up $1.2 trillion (1.08 trillion euros) in student debt due to the rising cost of college tuition. Sanders has introduced legislation to make all four-year public colleges tuition free, and would finance it through a tax on Wall Street speculation.
Uphill battle
But according to Arthur Sanders (no relation), the broader public just is not there yet. The US politics expert points to Obamacare. Only 43 percent of the public has a favorable view of President Obama’s signature domestic accomplishment, according to a Kaiser Health Tracking poll. Senator Sanders, on the other hand, thinks Obama’s health care reforms don’t go far enough.
“If he’s going to argue as he did in the past for single-payer government health care, the public is not ready for that, they’re barely ready for Obamacare,” Arthur Sanders, a professor at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, told DW.
And so far, Senator Sanders also hasn’t made inroads with African American and Latino voters, who overwhelmingly support Hillary Clinton. Though he was involved in the civil rights movement in Chicago during the 1960s, he now represents an overwhelmingly white state in New England.
He’s also refused to accept corporate money out of principle. While Hillary Clinton has raised $45 million, Senator Sanders has pulled in $15 million from small donors. Regardless of whether or not he can secure the nomination, the democratic socialist senator from Vermont is already having a significant influence on the debate. And perhaps that’s his real objective.
“He’ll push Clinton to the left, he’ll push the debate to the left,” Arthur Sanders said. “He’ll never say that’s why he’s running, because you can’t say that’s why you’re running.”
NSA leaked Turkish officials war talk: “Davutoğlu False-Flag operation” Report
A 2014 Turkish Foreign Ministry session, which featured high-level Turkish officials discussing how Turkey could start a war with Syria, was reportedly recorded and leaked by the US National Security Agency (NSA).
German weekly magazine Focus attributed the leakage to the NSA, reporting on the security meeting among former Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, National Intelligence Organization (MİT) head Hakan Fidan, Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioğlu and Deputy Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaşar Güler.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was prime minister at the time, banned the video-sharing website YouTube after the leakage, which caught Fidan saying he would send four men from Syria to attack Turkey to “make up a cause of war.” Güler is heard saying in response, “What you’re going to do is a direct cause of war.”
Currently serving as Turkish prime minister, Davutoğlu said on July 3 that his country would not hesitate to launch a military intervention in Syria in case of what he referred to as a potential threat to Turkey’s “security.”
The Turkish newspaper Hürriyet Daily also reported last Sunday that the Turkish military had called on all troop commanders stationed along its border with Syria to be present at a meeting aimed at discussing a possible intervention in the crisis-hit country.
Erdogan has accused Syrian Kurds of trying to establish a state in Syria’s north, saying Ankara will leave no stone unturned to prevent such an establishment near its borders.
Ankara has long been engaged in a conflict with the Turkish Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s.
Turkey has also been one of the main supporters of the militancy against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with reports showing that Ankara actively trains and arms militants operating in Syria.
Source: Presstv
Turkish police paid 440,000 euros to hackers for spyware
By Tolga Tanış,
The Turkish police paid 440,000 euros to an Italian hacker group between August 2011 and February 2015 to target certain individuals with specially designed spyware, according to leaked documents seen by daily Hürriyet.
The Organized Crime and Reporting Project (OCCRP) reported on July 8 that online hackers have released more than 400 GB of internal data, including staff emails and company documents, stolen from Hacking Team, a company in Italy that sells online spying software to governments and security services around the world. Report hurriyetdailynews
Hacking Team, which employs 40 people and has branches in the United States and Singapore, was named as a corporate “enemy of the internet” in 2013 by press-freedom advocacy group Reporters Without Borders, for selling its spy software to repressive regimes.
Although the company has been denying the reports since then, the leaked documents show that it licensed its sophisticated Remote Control System (RCS) spyware to a number of states, including Turkey.
An agreement between Hacking Team and Turkey’s Police Department was signed, and the first spyware was delivered in August 2011, according to leaked documents seen by Hürriyet. The Turkish signature belongs to Ahmet Koçak, who worked for Anti-Cyber Crime Branch of the police at the time.
Spying software, hardware, imported to Turkey
RCS is designed to remotely record every keystroke made on a target device, take control of cameras and audio records, steal all stored information and vacuum up passwords. In some instances, however, Turkish police wanted additional powers.
Documents show that Turkish officials applied on Dec. 11, 2013, to the company to send them a virus that would be “silently installed” on the computers of targeted visitors of a website, www.yuruyus.com. The company delivered it after six days.
A similar order from the police, this time involving an infected Word document titled “Mücadelem” (My Struggle) was delivered by the company in the same period in just three hours.
Beside software applications that were designed for the Turkish police, the company also delivered specially equipped hardware to Ankara, according to leaked documents.
An email dated January 2014, for instance, indicates that a 600-euro laptop computer with a “network injector” was sent from Italy, but became stuck at Turkish customs.
Contract renewed in 2015
According to the leaked documents, Turkish police decided to renew the contract with Hacking Team that would expire in November 2014. A police officer named Abdulkerim Demir sent the company an email on Feb. 11, 2015, to make a new contract.
After the company declined to prepare a new contract through its Singapore branch or extend the existing contract, Demir sent another email on Feb. 24, accepting the company’s terms.
Documents indicate that Turkish police used the spyware on 50 unspecified targets and paid 440,000 euros to Hacking Team with official invoices.
Ankara’s war on former ally, Gülenists
One curious aspect of the leaked documents is that the Turkish police used various Gmail accounts, instead of official email addresses, while contacting Hacking Team. All accounts have the same three letters at the beginning of the addresses: TNP, a reference to (T)urkish (N)ational (P)olice.
Notably, the police changed the Gmail address immediately after the Dec. 17, 2013, corruption investigation in Turkey, which created a rift between the Turkish government and its ally-turned-nemesis, the movement of the U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen.
Labelling the investigation targeting several government figures as a coup attempt, Ankara responded by launching espionage investigations and engaging in a major reshuffle to uproot the alleged followers of Gülen within security and judicial institutions.
Leaked documents show that the correspondence between the Turkish police and Hacking Team intensified before the Dec. 17 investigation, but the deal between the two sides continued into this year, albeit via new contacts.
Istanbul: the anti-Chinese protesters sacked the Thai Consulate, 9 arrests
Istanbul, July 9, 2015 (AFP) – More than 200 Turkish anti-Chinese protesters broke into and ransacked Wednesday evening strength Thailand consulate in Istanbul to denounce making state information of deportation to China of a group of Uighur Muslims reported the local press.
At the call of an association working for the rights of the Turkish-speaking community in China, protesters broke into the building in Zincirlikuyu district, on the European side of the metropolis, forcing then demolishing the entrance and windows with stones, said the news agency Dogan.
Chanting “Allah Akbar”, angry demonstrators ransacked the material of the diplomatic mission, he threw by building windows.
The police intervened and arrested nine protesters, according to Dogan.
Since the beginning of the Muslim month of Ramadan, several Turkish cities have been the scene of protests against Chinese policy towards this community.
The Islamic-conservative government in Ankara last week summoned the Chinese ambassador to protest restrictions imposed by Beijing eyes Uighurs during Ramadan. China has denied the allegations.
In November 2014, more than 300 Chinese Uighurs in possession of false passports were arrested in Thailand while fleeing their home country.
According to the Turkish authorities contacted by AFP, 173 people from this group have been accepted in Turkey but the others would still in Thailand.
Stéphane © armenews.com
Over half of Turks fear retirement financial difficulties: Poll
Over half of Turkish people believe that they will face economic problems after they retire, so most have planned to keep working, according to a survey by AvivaSA and its partner Aviva in 12 countries, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.
Some 12,500 people participated in the “Consumers’ Saving Tendencies” survey in the United States, China, Indonesia, France, Britain, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Canada, Poland, Singapore and Turkey.
Around 55 percent of Turkish people are concerned about their potential financial difficulties in retirement, according to the study. However, Polish residents are the most concerned with their post-retirement future, with 58 percent.
Some 50 percent of Turkish people believe they will need to work after they retire, according to the study, which was made in cooperation with the Ipsos research firm.
“A total of 5.5 million people have recently enrolled in the private pension system, creating around 42 billion Turkish Liras worth of funds in Turkey… Between 2011 and 2051, an additional 91 billion euros of savings must be made to meet the financial demands of the retired people. Each Turkish person must make an additional 2,400 euros of savings annually to reach this amount. In Turkey, where the saving ratio is very low, the state contribution of 25 percent to the private pension system for each pensioner is of great importance,” said AvivaSA Retirement and Insurance CEO Meral Eredenk Kurdaş at a press meeting announcing the survey results on July 9.
People say they have financial difficulties mainly in two countries: Turkey and Poland. One in three people is not happy with his or her financial opportunities in these countries, according to the study.
Some 23 percent of Turkish people said they suffer from financial difficulties, with 31 percent saying they are “fine” and 46 percent saying “they can barely afford their lifestyles.”
The study also showed that around 49 percent of Turkish people do not want to borrow money for fear of being indebted. Turkish people are the most concerned group about this issue, followed by Indonesians with 48 percent and Poland with 37 percent.
Some 41 percent of Turkish people also said they “could not pay their bills on time nowadays,” the highest out of all the countries polled. Ireland and Indonesia follow Turkey with 21 percent.
#ElectricYerevan public disobedience campaign – debate
“It was very impromptu and not institutionalized; there was a specific goal related to specific government policies. It was not the authorities policies those people were expressing disobedience to, announcing that they wanted to change the regime and establish rule of law. They just wanted to have a specific decision changed,” he told reporters on Thursday.
Vardanyan said he thinks that the goal was very clearly reflected in the demonstrators’ slogans and activists’ speeches.
“They weren’t saying, ‘we complain about the hike’; it all had to do with the corrupt system that caused all that to happen, with the decision-making being non-transparent and ruling out citizens’ participation,” he added.
Analyzing further the popular movement’s structure, the expert said he sees that most of its participants are young people with average income.
Source: tert.am
“Thank You, Pope Francis” billboard installed in Massachusetts
Peace of Art, Inc. is completing its Armenian Genocide Awareness Billboard Campaign, “100 Billboards for 100 Years of Genocide,” with one more billboard in Sharon, Mass., displaying displays a message of gratitude, and reads, “Thank You, Pope Francis, for Commemorating the Armenian Genocide Centennial,” the Armenian Weekly reports.
In April 2015, at St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis called the Armenian Genocide “the first genocide of the 20th century.” The event was unprecedented because, for the first time in history, the Pope mentioned the Armenian Genocide in his liturgy.
“Pope Francis called on all states’ leadership, international organizations, and world peace-loving communities, to recognize the truth and to oppose such offenses,” said Daniel Varoujan Hejinian, the founding president of Peace of Art, Inc. “Such a brave statement by the Pope, the head of the Catholic Church, definitely deserves high respect and appreciation.”
In January 2015, Peace of Art, Inc. launched the Armenian Genocide Awareness Billboard Campaign. Throughout the United States and Canada, Peace of Art, Inc. has displayed large electronic and stationary billboards dedicated to the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, and in honor of the victims of all genocides of the last 100 years.
Russia businessman: Karabakh is source of ancient human relations
Nagorno-Karabakh is a glamorous place where magnificent people live; and happy are those Armenians that have such Motherland, such history, and such beauty.
Renowned Russian businessman German Sterligov told the aforementioned to REN TV of Russia, as he revealed the secret behind his sudden departure from Russia and settling in Karabakh with his family.
Sterligov stated that Nagorno-Karabakh is a very amazing place.
“I have traveled around the world, and I haven’t seen such a place anywhere. Such fertile soil, and most importantly, such human relations—kind and open-hearted. There is no aggression here, at all.
“I’m happy to have brought my children here, since I had told them how people should treat each other in theory. (…). And this exists in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“So, come to Nagorno-Karabakh to understand what I’m talking about! This is a unique place in the world. This is the source of ancient human relations which the Armenian people have maintained,” German Sterligov said, in particular.
7 foods you should never eat
Every time you go grocery shopping, you’re making decisions that will have an impact on your health. While you may be well aware that some items you toss in your grocery cart aren’t the healthiest choice on the shelf, you may not realize just how unhealthy they truly are.
While one bad food may not have long-term consequences for your health, a cart full of processed foods loaded with carbs and sugar seriously endangers your health, and even some foods you may think are healthy are anything but good for you.
Here’s a list of seven foods you should never eat:
• Microwave popcorn. A report from the FDA found that popcorn bags are linked with a chemical called perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), the same toxic chemical found in many non-stick pots and pans. PFOAs are linked to bladder cancer, thyroid problems, and high cholesterol. Some experts theorize that 20 percent of the PFO found in our bodies comes from microwave popcorn. The smell of popcorn microwaved in a commercial bag is due to a chemical called diacetyl, a synthetic butter flavoring. It causes a disease called bronchiolitis obliterans, or “popcorn worker’s lung,” in factory workers who inhale the fumes. Due to public concerns, some manufacturers of popcorn have eliminated diacetyl.
• Processed meats. Hot dogs, bacon, ham, and other processed meats are loaded with unhealthy amounts of fat, salt, and preservatives, but they can also contain nitrites and nitrates, chemical additives used to enhance their taste, boost their color, and keep them from spoiling. Over 90 percent of nitrates tested have been found to cause cancer in various organs of the body, including the breast and stomach.
Bacon, salami, and other cured meats can aggravate respiratory diseases like chronic bronchitis and emphysema to the point of requiring a trip to the emergency room. Nitrates have been found to increase the risk of developing COPD, and to increase the chances of hospitalization from the disease. Nitrates can also trigger headaches in sensitive people.
• Farm raised fish. According to the Environmental Working Group, most farm-raised fish are fed genetically modified feed. Fish tested were also contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) at high levels, and were 16 times more likely to be contaminated than wild-caught fish. In addition, farm-fed fish were found to contain pesticides and other toxins from contaminated water that drains into ponds.
A study published in Science found that farmed salmon had 10 times the level of contaminants as wild salmon. Dr. David Carpenter, author of the study, told PBS that farmed salmon was so contaminated that eating more than one meal a month raised the risk for cancer. Some experts believe that some European farmed salmon should only be eaten once every four months.
• Margarine. Although margarine was billed for decades as the healthy alternative to butter, many studies confirmed trans-fats in margarine raised cholesterol and damaged blood vessels. The more solid the margarine at room temperature, the more trans-fats it contained. Manufacturers have reformulated their products, but many health experts aren’t convinced the products are healthy as many contain genetically modified and artificial ingredients.
• Soft drinks. Whether sweetened with sugar or artificial sweeteners, sodas play havoc with your health. Sodas have been linked to the growing epidemics of obesity and diabetes. But sodas have also been linked to cancer: When sodium benzoate, used for mold prevention in many soft drinks, is mixed with vitamin C, it creates a carcinogenic substance called benzene. British researchers also found problems with sodium benzoate — they found it may be able to switch off vital parts of DNA called mitochondria, the “power station” of cells. The result could eventually causes cirrhosis of the liver and other degenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s.
Researchers at India’s Tata Memorial Hospital found a “very significant correlation” between soft drinks and an increased risk of esophageal cancer, and other studies have linked soft drinks to the risk of deadly pancreatic cancer.
Sodas are also linked to cardiovascular problems. A study published in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association, found that people who drank one or more soft drinks each day were 25 percent more likely to develop high blood triglycerides, and 32 percent more likely to have low levels of “good” cholesterol.
• Artificial sweeteners. “Artificial sweeteners are a disaster,” says board-certified family physician Dr. David Brownstein. “They’re known to cause neurologic problems, autoimmune disorders, and probably cancer,” he tells Newsmax Health.
We’ve been told for decades that artificial sweeteners help keep us slim, but recent studies have caused grave doubts. Researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio found those who drank diet sodas were more likely to become overweight than those who drank regular sugary sodas. For each can of diet soda consumed each day, the risk of obesity increased by 41 percent. After 10 years, those who drank two or more diet sodas a day increased their risk of obesity by 500 percent.
Artificial sweeteners also don’t appear to lower the risk of diabetes. A study published in the journal Nature found that diet sodas change the microbes living in the gut in a way that increases the risk of diabetes, and a study conducted at the University of Minnesota found that a single diet soda daily raised the risk of metabolic syndrome and diabetes by 36 percent.
Sodas may be harming women’s bones. Researchers at Tufts university found that women who drank sodas, including diet sodas, had lower bone density that women who didn’t drink them. The phosphoric acid in sodas leaches calcium from bones.
• Conventionally grown potatoes. Since it’s a root vegetable, potatoes absorb all of the chemicals in the soil — herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides. According to the USDA, 37 different pesticides have been found on conventionally grown potatoes. Of them, seven are possible carcinogens, nine are neurotoxins, and 12 are possible hormone disrupters. About 76 percent of all potatoes are contaminated with an herbicide called chlorpropham, which is used to keep potatoes from sprouting.