US Presidential elections: After big New York wins, Trump and Clinton cast themselves as inevitable

Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton scored sweeping victories in nominating contests in their home state of New York, and immediately cited those wins to argue that they are all but unstoppable as their respective parties' presidential nominees.

Trump's crushing defeat of Ted Cruz in Tuesday's primary election tilted the energy in the Republican race back to the front-runner, just as Republican National Committee members begin meeting in Florida on Wednesday to discuss their July convention, where the nominee will be chosen.

For the Democratic favorite, Clinton's more narrow victory over Bernie Sanders snapped a string of victories by the 74-year-old democratic socialist and gave her a much-needed lift with more tough fights ahead.
The eventual victors of the Democratic and the Republican nominating campaigns will face each other in November's general election.

Trump's win, celebrated to the tune of Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" at Trump Tower in Manhattan, marked a rebound from his Wisconsin defeat two weeks ago. It set him up for another big night on April 26, when Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Maryland will hold primaries.

With a campaign staff reboot and a more focused performance, Trump has sought to improve in recent weeks as a candidate. The tone of his victory speech was in keeping with a more measured style the often-brash billionaire has adopted.

"We don't have much of a race anymore based on what I’m seeing on television," Trump said as television networks projected a large margin of victory for him. "Senator Cruz is just about mathematically eliminated."
Trump, 69, predicted some "amazing weeks" ahead for his campaign.

Still, he has a long way to go to seal the nomination and begin trying to heal the wounds in his bitterly divided party. Some fence-mending may happen when he sends campaign advisers to the RNC meeting starting in Hollywood, Florida, on Wednesday.

Trump's haul of most of New York's 95 delegates moved him closer to the 1,237 needed to win the nomination outright. Anything short of that will lead to a contested convention when Republicans hold their national conclave July 18-21 in Cleveland.

"There's only two issues left for Republicans: Will Trump get 50 percent of the delegates prior to Cleveland, and if not, how close will he be? New York gives him a nice boost, but it will take weeks before we know the answer," said Ari Fleischer, who was White House press secretary under President George W. Bush.

Cruz, a 45-year-old U.S. senator from Texas, came in third in New York and gave his primary night speech in Philadelphia, where he was already focused on running in Pennsylvania. He called on Republicans to unite around his candidacy.

Ohio Governor John Kasich, 63, a long-shot candidate, is seeking to use his second-place showing in New York as proof he is emerging as Trump's central challenger in the states that come up next on the calendar.

Clinton, a former U.S. senator from New York, former secretary of state and former first lady, got nowhere near the knockout punch she needed to finally put Sanders away.

But the broad smile on her face as she gave her victory speech spoke volumes about how important New York was to her bid to become the first fem

Read more: After big New York wins, Trump and Clinton cast themselves as inevitable | Reuters

Grocery Business: Germany's privately owned Aldi challenging Wallmart's Super Centers by being small, quality driven and cheaper

20% lower prices than Wallmart

Add Aldi to Walmart’s list of growth challenges. Already a force to be reckoned with more than 10,000 stores worldwide, including across Europe and Australia, the German retailer is catching on with shoppers in America, too.

Now operating 1,500 stores in 32 US states, Americans are getting to know one of the world’s largest privately-owned companies, a scrappy Walmart-fighter with substantially lower grocery prices than the once-unassailable, homegrown low-price leader.

And now Aldi has its sights set on more of the American pie.

While Aldi stores are typically only a fraction as large as a Walmart supercenter, with fewer national brands and an overall slimmer selection, Aldi grocery prices can average 20 percent lower than a Walmart in the same market, Bloomberg reported.

How is it undercutting Walmart? For a start, Aldi brings efficiency to its operations — a store can operate fully on just a handful of employees. Presentation is no-frills. Frugality is such that the chain makes customers pay a 25-cent deposit per cart, refundable only if they return it before they leave. That way, Aldi doesn’t have to pay employees just to go gather carts in the parking lot.

Aldi’s West Coast expansion inspired queues last week when it opened eight stores in Southern California, including one in Palm Springs. The Orange County Register chalked up the frenzy to “pent-up anticipation for the international grocery giant, known for its deep discounts and knockoff brands. If it continues, Aldi is expected to trigger upheaval in the crowded Southern California grocery sector.”

Insure-Digest

Brexit: Britons Will Be Poorer if They Leave E.U., Government Asserts - by Stephen Castle

Great Britain or Poor Britain?

The British government outlined the central argument on Monday it hopes will persuade voters to stay in the European Union, publishing a detailed economic analysis finding that Britons will be poorer if they quit.

The release of the publication by the Treasury, complete with complex algebraic calculations, is an important moment before a referendum, to take place June 23, on whether Britain should end more than four decades of integration and quit the 28-nation bloc.

Those who oppose a British withdrawal from the European Union, known as “Brexit,” say that it would inevitably lead to economic uncertainty and deter investment, and that it could complicate ties with the bloc, the country’s biggest trade partner.

On Monday, the government put a number on that claim, asserting that, under one midrange situation, annual economic output would be 4,300 pounds, around $6,100, lower per household if Britain left than if it stayed in the bloc.

.In any event, the chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, said at a speech in Bristol, England, that the country “would be permanently poorer if it left the European Union” because “we’d trade less, do less business and receive less investment.”

Mr. Osborne, who with Prime Minister David Cameron is campaigning for Britons to vote to remain, added: “The price would be paid by British families. Wages would be lower, and prices would be higher.”

Those advocating an exit, including dissenters in the governing Conservative Party, quickly dismissed the analysis. Andrea Leadsom, a government minister who used to work in the Treasury, called it “extraordinarily biased.”

The release of the document highlights the quickening tempo of the referendum campaign, which officially began last week.

And it precedes a visit to Britain this week by President Obama, who is expected, if asked, to endorse continued British membership in the bloc but to note that it is a decision for British voters.

Note EU-Digest: the other disaster that looms for Britain in case they leave the EU, is that Scotland has indicated they want to remain in the EU and will secede from the United Kingdam if they leave the EU.

Read more: Britons Will Be Poorer if They Leave E.U., Government Asserts - The New York Times

Israel: US VP Biden blasts Israeli government at J Street gala - by Edward-Isaac Dover

Vice President Joe Biden several times criticized what he called an Israeli government that causes “overwhelming frustration” in a speech that seemed to rule out the chances of a final year peace push from the Obama administration.

“The present course Israel’s on is not one that’s likely to secure its existence as a Jewish, democratic state— and we have to make sure that happens,” Biden said, in a speech to the annual gala dinner of the left-leaning J Street held in Washington.

Despite the Obama administration’s frequent clashes with the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House carefully avoided weighing in ahead of last year’s Israeli elections. But Monday, Biden went harder at Netanyahu as he sketched out a reality he said that’s left him feeling that “the path for peace is shrouded.”

“There is, at the moment, no political will among Israelis and Palestinians to move forward with serious negotiations,” Biden said.

Biden kicked off his remarks by praising Stav Shaffir, a 30-year-old member of the Israeli Knesset from the left whom he said was a “flashback” to his own election to the Senate at the age of 29.

“May your views once again begin to have a majority opinion in the Knesset,” Biden said.

Read more: Biden blasts Israeli government at J Street gala - POLITICO

TTIP: U.S. Trade Policy: Populist Anger or Out-of-Touch Elites? - by Jeff Faux,

Nobody wants it except the
Corporate and Government elites

The presidential primary campaigns of both political parties have exposed widespread voter anger over U.S. global trade policies. In response, hardly a day has recently gone by without the New York Times, the Washington Post and other defenders of the status quo lecturing their readers on why unregulated foreign trade is good for them.

The ultimate conclusion is always the same – that voters should leave complicated issues like this to those intellectually better qualified to deal with them. So much for democracy.

Trade experts, according to Binyamin Appelbaum of the Times have been “surprised” at the popular discontent over this issue. Their surprise only shows how disconnected the elite and the policy class that supports it is from the way most people actually experience the national economy.

The United States has always been a trading nation. But until the 1994 North American Trade Agreement, trade policy was primarily an instrument to support domestic economic welfare and development.

Starting with NAFTA, pushed through not by a Republican president, but by the Bill Clinton in 1994, it became a series of deals in which profit opportunities for American investors were opened up elsewhere in the world in exchange for opening up U.S. labor markets to fierce foreign competition.

As Jorge Castañeda, who later became Mexico’s foreign minister, put it, NAFTA was “an agreement for the rich and powerful in the United States, Mexico and Canada, an agreement effectively excluding ordinary people in all three societies.”

For 20 years, leaders of both parties have assured Americans that each new NAFTA-style deal would bring more jobs and higher wages for workers, and trade surpluses for their country. It was, they were told, an iron law of economics.

What actually followed were outsourced jobs, wage declines, shrunken opportunities and rising trade deficits. The result has been a dramatic weakening of the bargaining power of American workers.

So it should come as no surprise when the large parts of the U.S. workforce now conclude that these trade deals may have had something to do with the redistribution of income from their pockets to the bank accounts of the top 1% who own and manage large multinational corporations.

Read more: U.S. Trade Policy: Populist Anger or Out-of-Touch Elites? - The Globalist

Fishing Industry: Saving Atlantic and Gulf of Maine salmon will require Greenland's help - by P. Whittle

Maine, where most of America’s 
last wild Atlantic salmon spawn

Preventing the long-imperiled Gulf of Maine Atlantic salmon from disappearing from American waters will require the U.S. to put pressure on Inuit fishermen in Greenland to stop harvesting a fish that has fed them for hundreds of years, federal officials say.

The salmon were once found from Long Island Sound to Canada, but their population has cratered in the face of river damming, warming ocean waters, competition for food with non-native fish and, officials say, continued Greenlandic fishing.

Now, federal officials have outlined an ambitious plan to try to save the Atlantic salmon that they say will require removing dams, creating fish passages and fostering cooperation with Inuit fishermen some 2,000 miles away from Maine, where most of America’s last wild Atlantic salmon spawn.

“We’ve tried everything possible to negotiate with Greenland to find alternatives to find out how they can lessen impacts on U.S. fish,” said Dan Kircheis, a fisheries biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service.

“This is part of their culture, this is part of who they are, this is something they’ve always done. We are trying to work with them to realize the fish they are fishing for originate in Canada, in U.S. waters, in Europe, and these populations are in decline.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has said the final remnants of the wild Atlantic salmon population in U.S. waters live in a handful of rivers and streams in central and eastern Maine. 

A 2014 count found less than 300 salmon in the Penobscot River, which has the largest wild Atlantic salmon population in the country.

Federal authorities listed the Gulf of Maine’s Atlantic salmon population as endangered in 2000. 

They were once found in almost every river north of the Hudson, but since the 18th century they have declined to just 11 rivers, NOAA has said. The Atlantic salmon and the Pacific Chinook salmon are the largest salmon species.

EU-Digest

European Real Estate: Spain unveils plans to build the tallest skyscraper in the EU - by Rebecca Flood

Distrito Castelana Norte (DNC)

The Shard could lose its title as Europe’s tallest building after developers in Spain unveiled plans for an even bigger skyscraper.

Since 2011, the triangle shaped tower has dominated the London skyline, earning it the prestige of being Europe’s tallest inhabitable structure.

Standing at 310 metres tall, 72 of the 95 floors are in use, with the upper floors accounting for the spire.

But new plans for a six tower development in Madrid could knock it off the top spot with one tower included in the complex planned to be 70 floors, also topping 300 metres

Antonio Béjar, CEO of the company behind the project, Distrito Castellana Norte (DCN), announced the lavish plans.

He said the skyscrapers would: "Transform the city’s skyline and put Madrid among the main European capital cities.

"The project is closer than ever to starting,"

The entire development forms part of a wider regeneration scheme for the northern part of the city, which has been progressing over the years.

DCN is currently applying for all the necessary permits to begin construction.

Read more: Spain unveils plans to build the tallest skyscraper in the EU | UK | News | The Independent

The Netherlands Economy: Vice crime pumps over €2.5 billion into Netherlands economy - by Janene Pieters

Criminal activities involving drugs, illegal prostitution, illegal gambling and similar crimes contribute about 2.7 billion euros to the Netherlands’ economy a year. That means that criminal activities account for about 0.4 percent of the Dutch economy, according to an estimate by Statistics Netherlands at the request of broadcaster RTL .

The estimated value of the criminal economy was 2.6 billion in 2010, which means that the growth does not seem to be very strong. Though Statistic Netherlands emphasizes that it should be noted that it is very difficult to make a reliable estimate.

According to Statistics Netherlands’ estimates, the added value of drugs and illegal prostitution increased somewhat, while money earned by illegal downloads providers decreased. Previous calculations showed that drug production and -trade accounts for 55 percent of the criminal economy, followed by prostitution with 21 percent. Illegal downloads and illegal gambling accounts for about 9 percent.

Read more: Vice crime pumps over €2.5 billion into Netherlands economy - NL Times

Space Research: NSA: “Space hotel” successfully added to ISS

The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) has been successfully attached onto the International Space Station (ISS).

A NASA ground-control team has used a robot arm to unpack an expandable module and attach it to the International Space Station, setting the stage to test a new habitat for astronauts, researchers and even tourists.

The 3,100-pound (1,400 kg) module, manufactured and owned by Bigelow Aerospace, was launched aboard a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule that reached the station last week.

Read more: “Space hotel” successfully added to ISS | euronews, no comment

Airline Safety: Drone hits British Airways plane approaching Heathrow Airport

A plane approaching Heathrow Airport is believed to have hit a drone before it landed safely, the Metropolitan Police has said.

The British Airways flight from Geneva was hit as it approached the London airport at about 12:50 BST with 132 passengers and five crew on board.

After landing, the pilot reported an object - believed to be a drone - had struck the front of the Airbus A320.
Aviation police based at Heathrow have launched an investigation.

Police said no arrests have been made.

If confirmed, it is believed to be the first incident of its kind in the UK.

A British Airways spokesman said: "Our aircraft landed safely, was fully examined by our engineers and it was cleared to operate its next flight."

The airline will give the police "every assistance with their investigation", the spokesman added.

A Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) spokesman said it was "totally unacceptable" to fly drones close to airports, and anyone flouting the rules can face "severe penalties, including imprisonment".

Steve Landells, from the British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa), said it had been "only a matter of time before we had a drone strike". He called for greater enforcement of existing rules.

Read more: Drone hits British Airways plane approaching Heathrow Airport - BBC News

The Netherlands: Almere, Europe's most "avant-garde" multi-cultural city celebrating it's 40th birthday

From the moment of its establishment in 1976, Almere has been one of the fastest growing cities in Europe.

Initially developed as a suburban area east of Amsterdam, it has become one of Europe's most impressive new modern multi-cultural cities.

 During the past 36 years, it has also become the home of some 200,000 residents and 18.000 businesses.

Almere is the largest city in the Province of Flevoland and now also the seventh largest city in the Netherlands.

A Facebook page  (unfortunately in Dutch only) is commemorating this event. the whole year, until the exact date (November 30)  when  Almere's first settlers arrived, many years ago.

The Facebook page also  illustrates many of the important facts and events that took place during the 40 years since Almere became one of the fastest growing and most modern multi-cultural European cities.

Over the years, as the city developed  it also quickly got the reputation of being one of Europe's, architecturally, most "avant-garde cities".

Obviously this made Almere also a very attractive city for architecture students to visit.

If Dutch is not your maternal language, there are also numerous other websites containing information about Almere - its corporate sector, its sustainability, the facilities and opportunities that residents, businesses and institutions alike have by being established in Almere.

The following sites might be a good place to start looking:  Chamber of Commerce,  World Trade Center Almere, VVV Almere, The City of Almere, Almere Sun Island, Wikipedia Almere, Floriade 2022 - Growing Green Cities, Almere-Digest,

Mayor, Mr. Franc Weerwind

A friendly welcoming city, from its Mayor, Mr. Franc Weerwind, to all the city's residents.

It all seems to be happening in Almere.!

Almere-Digest 

Turkey : ‘US stance on Turkey’s media crackdown – quid pro quo’ - by Chris Hedges

quid pro quo

Washington will not criticize Turkey's crackdown on the press because it is dependent on the country's airbases to carry out strikes, Chris Hedges, author, war correspondent and former bureau chief for the New York Times has told RT.

RT: The State Department seems to be pretty quick to condemn other countries in terms of human rights violations, but reluctant when it comes to the same issue in Turkey. What's the reason behind that?

Chris Hedges: They need Turkey as a logistical base in order to carry out strikes against the so-called Islamic State. So I mean what we have seen in terms of attacks on the press and even attacks on the social media – it is almost unprecedented. It is coming close to almost a complete shutdown of independent journalism within the Turkish state.

RT: The situation regarding freedom of the press in Turkey, from your time looking at it, is it the worst it has ever been?

CH: Yeah, I was the Middle East bureau chief for the New York Times, so I was in the Middle East for seven years, and I covered Turkey…The Turkish relationship with the press starting with the independent state of Turkey and the breakup of the Ottoman Empire was always problematic. Atatürk, the first sort of father of modern Turkey, was always very harsh. After World War II they were severe. So I mean it has come in kind of patterns. But I would say it is the worst it has been in decades, yes.

RT: Numerous human rights groups have slammed Turkish authorities for gagging the press in the country. Can the actions of such organizations make any impact on the issue?

CH: So far it has virtually had no impact. I don't think that the Turkish government is particularly responsive to the complaints of US human rights groups. Remember they have resurrected the whole war with the Kurds now and the PKK. So the Turkish investment in the radical groups in Syria many people read as an effort by the Erdogan government to essentially recreate in some form the old Ottoman Empire, certainly to expand Turkey's territorial reach and there really does not seem to be any restraint, any meaningful restraint on the part of the outside powers vis-à-vis Turkey. And I think that is largely because the US desperately needs Turkey as a staging area to carry out its attacks in Iraq and Syria. And therefore in essence it is a kind of quid pro quo where they need Turkey and therefore are uncomfortable in terms of pressuring Turkey in any meaningful way.

RT: Is there any way to ensure freedom of the press is respected in Turkey?

CH: We have seen in recent days and weeks that it has only gotten worse. Journalists have been charged not with violating censorship laws but with terrorism itself. Newspapers have been taken over. Basic social media, like Facebook have been shut down. The Russian news agency was shut down. The screws have only been tightened and this isn't a particularly new phenomenon.

The assault by this government on the Turkish press has been ongoing for some time, but they really seem at the point of shutting out any kind of independent press reporting or monitoring, not only within Turkey but within the wider region. And that is very dangerous because out of the counties like Iraq whose infrastructure was destroyed and also certainly out of much of Syria, we have very few news organizations within the region that are able to report on what is happening. The Turkish press, certainly when I covered the Middle East, was good and vigorous and it is just tragic to see what has happened to it.

Read more: ‘US stance on Turkey’s media crackdown – quid pro quo’ — RT Op-Edge

EU-Digest

European Economy - Peoples Capitalism: Crowdfunding helps Europe’s businesses boom

Peoples Capitalism

Crowdfunding is no longer a niche, it’s booming in Europe. In this edition of Business Planet, from Finland, Serge Rombi finds out how platforms work and what makes a successful campaign.

“Global crowdfunding was more than 30 billion euros last year,” Lasse Makela, CEO of the Invesdor crowd-funding platform, told euronews’ Serge Rombi.

“It’s growing by more than 100 percent per year. And it’s going to be larger than venture capital financing this year.”

In the autonomous Aland islands in the Baltic Sea, a family-run SME produces 100 percent natural lemonade, using only local products.

In 2014, Tony Asumaa – founder of Amalias Limonadfabrik – realised that he needed to expand production and he immediately opted for crowdfunding.

“We chose crowdfunding because it was cheap, efficient, fast and, above all, non-bureaucratic – to get new capital into the company,” he said.

Through Lasse’s platform, Tony won more than 86-thousand euros in equity crowdfunding.
In other words, those who invested in his company are now shareholders.

“We have 163 new shareholders. As our ambassadors, they promote our products, they sell them. Some restaurant owners sell products throughout the country,” said Tony.

 Read more: Crowdfunding helps Europe’s businesses boom | euronews, business planet

EU-Digest

Russian Debt Crises: Russia’s in the red - by Sean Guillory

On 5 April, in the town of Iskitim in Novosibirsk oblast, four masked debt collectors broke into the home of Natalia Gorbunova, beat her husband and 17-year-old son, and then raped her in front of them.

Gorbunova had taken a 5,000 rouble ($75) microloan from two companies, Money Now and Money Quickly, in 2014. She couldn’t make the payments.

But how could she? According to them, Gorbunova now owned them 240,000 roubles ($3,586). The beating and rape weren’t the loan sharks’ first resort. They’d been threatening her family on the phone for two years. A week before the collectors raided Gorbunova’s home, they tried to assault her son, but he managed to get away. The identity of the assailants is still unknown. The cops are scrambling to find them.

Many in the foreign press have noted that revelations of Vladimir Putin’s connections to the Panama Papers weren’t reported in Russia’s federal media. But the reality is that for most Russians who are struggling to stave off constant harassment, threats, and outright violence from predatory lenders,

Putin’s alleged two billion dollars matters far less in their immediate daily life. It’s a reminder of the old Russian adage that “God is high above and the Tsar is far away.”

Nevertheless, federal media did report the crime against Gorbunova and her family. National broadcaster NTV even has a topic page devoted to debt collector violence. Indeed, there is growing public concern — in 2015, the amount of outstanding personal debt rose by 25% to 870 billion roubles ($13 billion).

Collector violence is even getting the attention of the Tsar and his minions. For example, Investigative Committee head Aleksandr Bastrikin has taken the Gorbunova case under his personal control.


Russia’s usually lackadaisical politicians have also been jolted into some action. Several have spoken out about the need to reign in debt collectors, and in Kemerovo oblast, Governor Aman Tuleev and his regional legislature banned collectors outright. (Collection agencies quickly denounced the move as “populism” and the Justice Ministry said that the law was a blow to “economic freedom”.)

The Duma has passed the first reading of a bill that restricts debt collectors’ activities and their interactions with debtors, prohibits harassment, threats and violence, and raises fines by ten times to two million rubles.

A week ago, even Putin spoke out and demanded an end to the lawlessness, threats, and psychological and physical abuse by “quasi-collectors”.

Read more: Russia’s in the red | openDemocracy

EU Car Industry Goes Electric and prices are dropping: Netherlands looks to ban all non-electric cars by 2025 - by S. Hinckley

VW E-GOLF Electric

By 2025, the Netherlands may only allow electric vehicles on the road.

A majority of elected officials in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Parliament, supported a motion proposed by the Labor Party (PvdA) to ban all diesel and petroleum cars from the Dutch market starting in 2025. If enacted, this proposal would allow existing fossil fuel-powered cars to stay on the road until they died, but when it comes to new sales, only electric cars would be permitted.

"We are ambitious, perhaps other parties are less so," PvdA leader Diederik Samsom told the local NL Times.

Renault Zoe  - Electric

While it is still unclear whether or not the motion will pass, some electric enthusiasts see the proposal as progress all the same. This law would not only affect Dutch drivers, but would also require more electric vehicle output from car manufacturers, and potentially destigmatize electric vehicles as a niche purchase.

"One big thing that's preventing more people from buying [electric cars] is awareness – people just don't know about them," Joel Levin, executive director of Plug In America, tells The Christian Science Monitor in a phone interview Thursday. "It is a pretty big shift for how you think about your car."

Fiat -500 Electric

But this proposal doesn't mean that the Netherlands is a model of energy efficiency – yet. Rather, it's one of the most carbon-intensive countries in the European Union, according to a 2015 study by Deloitte. Natural gas and petroleum make up the majority of the Netherland's energy resources at 41 and 42 percent respectively, with solid fuels coming in third at 10 percent and finally renewable energies making up five percent of the overall energy mix.

In 2012, the transportation sector consumed the most energy of all sources, constituting 29 percent of all consumption in the Netherlands.

In the United States, by comparison, transportation represents 27 percent of the country's consumption, according to a 2015 report from the Energy Information Administration.

BMW -i3 Electric

This isn't the first time that the Netherlands has announced an ambitious energy-saving goal in transportation technology.

The Dutch energy company Eneco, partnering with VIVENS rail companies, announced a plan in 2015 to make a fleet of trains powered entirely by wind energy within the next three years. And for almost a year now, the Netherlands has boasted the world's first solar road, a bike path made of solar panels that generates enough electricity to power a small home for a year.

The Netherlands has also announced plans to pave roads with recycled plastic, which they market as durable and low maintenance, with a smaller environmental impact than asphalt production.

Mercedes B-Class Electric

And while these proposals may be more experimental, advocates say electric vehicles have real potential.
"For people who are aware [of electric cars], there are a few myths," Mr. Levin says. Primarily, many people have the misconception that electric vehicles are expensive, slow, unsafe, and inconvenient.

"They are not fancy cars for rich people – there are many affordable ones. And if you compare apples to apples, the total coast of ownership is very competitive," he explains.

Along with these myths, there are also a lot of positives that gas or diesel-powered cars don't experience. "Apart from any environmental benefits, they are a pleasure to drive, there is tremendous power," he says. "And maintenance is low – there is no engine, so if you change the brakes and batteries, nothing really could go wrong."

Charging is easy, he adds; it can be done at home overnight. "People worry about running out of power, but the [drivers] that run out of power are the same ones that run out of gas."

EU-Digest

Alternative Energy - Tidal Power: Canal will be a proving ground for tidal turbines - by Steve Maas

For about a quarter-million dollars, a nonprofit research organization will build a modest test facility at the Cape Cod Canal that may help prove that producing electricity from ocean currents can be commercially viable.

The Marine Renewable Energy Collaborative will soon install the nation’s first permanent facility to evaluate submerged turbines that generate electricity from tidal power, in 25 feet of water at the west end of the canal, near the Buzzards Bay Railroad Bridge.

The simple trestle-like stand will make it vastly easier — and less expensive — for companies and researchers to subject their prototypes to real-world conditions.

“There is no standard test for tur bines, making it hard for generating venture capital,” said the collaborative director, John Miller. “There are a number of companies we know of that have designs they’d like to commercialize.”

Currently, makers of tidal turbines have to lease a ship to bring their equipment to an offshore location or build their own site along the shoreline. Either option is expensive and requires a lengthy permitting process to show the test site won’t adversely affect the marine ecosystem.

“Early experience was that about 70 percent of the cost of an ocean demonstration was just the permitting,” Miller said.

Much touted over the past few decades, tidal power has been slow to show its promise in the United States.

There are large projects underway in Canada, in the Bay of Fundy, and in Europe, off the coasts of Ireland, Scotland and France. Those have public funding, subsidies, and favorable geography — rugged coastlines, where tides rush in and out of narrow channels.

But nearly all of the ideal US locations fortidal power are in Alaska, said Robert Thresher, a fellow at the US
National Renewable Energy Laboratory who specializes in offshore power
technologies.

“It’s kind of a stranded asset,” Thresher said.

In far northeastern Maine, Ocean Renewable Power Co. is moving forward with its second tidal project in Cobscook Bay, where tides rise and fall some 20 feet over a 12-hour cycle. In 2012, the company deployed the first — and so far only — tidal energy project to deliver electricity to the nation’s power grid. The four turbines in the TidGen power system supplied enough electricity for 25 to 30 homes.

The $21 million project served as “primarily a learning tool, a way to verify that our design works,” said Chris Sauer, president of the Portland, Maine, company.

Sauer is developing a second-generation TidGen that he said would have four times the generating capacity and be less expensive to deploy and maintain. The company has a long-term contract with Maine utilities to supply up to 5 megawatts of power.

The cost of installing the first of the new units will be $5 million, Sauer said, and he hopes to complete fund-raising by this fall; the remaining turbines will cost another $35 million. Installation would begin in late 2017, at the earliest.

Whenever you’re dealing with new technology, it always takes longer and costs more money than you think,” Sauer said.

He projected that power from the tidal system would cost 25 to 30 cents a kilowatt hour. That’s expensive compared to more conventional electricity sources, but Sauer said that if the demand for turbines increases, economies of scale could make tidal energy competitive. His company has set its sights on foreign markets and, like Littoral, on Muskeget Channel.

Unlike solar and wind power, tidal energy is incredibly predictable, literally for hundreds of years,

Read more: Canal will be a proving ground for tidal turbines - The Boston Globe

"Is Poland's Government starting to lose it's marbles ?": Polish farmland bill may breach EU law - by Lukasz Lipinski

The Polish government, which is already at loggerheads with EU institutions over its constitutional reforms, could also be in trouble over a farmland bill which was passed in parliament on Thursday (14 April).

The new rules to regulate buying and selling of land because an exemption from European law granted when Poland joined the EU in 2004 ends on 1 May.

Under the temporary rule agreed to protect Poland's farmland and forests market, citizens of other EU states needed to obtain permission from the interior minister to make a purchase.

Warsaw argued that the rule was necessary because land in eastern EU states was much cheaper than in western Europe. Similar measures were taken by the other eastern EU states.

As a result, there were very few transactions involving foreigners. Last year they bought only 243 hectares of farmland and 159 hectares of forests in Poland.

It is easier, however, to take control of land through companies. According to the interior ministry, foreigners gained possession of 9,700 hectares that way. It is still not much, as the state itself sold a total of 75,000 hectares in 2015.

With the transition period coming to an end, the right-wing government wants to ensure that farmland stays in the Polish hands. However, according to EU law it cannot simply discriminate against the citizens of the other member states.
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Read more: Polish farmland bill may breach EU law

Turkey - Freedom of Expression Kaput: Erdoğan Brings His Media Policies to Germany - by Judy Dempsey

"Erdogan's favorite Doner"

If Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had his way, he would have the German satirist Jan Böhmermann behind bars by now. The reason? During his regular late-night talk show on March 31,

Böhmermann issued a blistering attack on Erdoğan in the form of a satirical poem. Seated before the Turkish flag and a portrait of Erdoğan, Böhmermann accused the president of, among other things, sex with goats and sheep. The comedian also stated that Erdoğan loved to “repress minorities, kick Kurds and beat Christians while watching child porn.”

Instead of ignoring Böhmermann’s satirical taunts, Erdoğan resorted to a habit he has been relentlessly pursuing in recent months: attempting to silence criticism, satire, and anything that dares to mock or question the policies of the Turkish president—by putting writers and journalists in jail. Erdoğan claimed that Böhmermann had insulted not just him personally but the entire Turkish population. He intends to seek redress in the German courts.

Prosecutors in Mainz, home to the German public television channel ZDF, which hosts Böhmermann’s shows, said Erdoğan was pressing charges for being insulted both as a private person and as a foreign head of state. If this is proved to be the case, Böhmermann could end up behind bars. As it is, he is under police protection. ZDF has canceled his next show.

The affair has put German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the spot. It was she who spearheaded a deal with Turkey in March 2016 to stem the flow of refugees trying to reach EU countries, particularly Germany. Under the terms of that accord, Turkey will take back refugees and migrants stranded in Greece in return for €6 billion ($6.8 billion) of EU financial assistance as well as promises by EU countries to take their share of other refugees and by the EU to open new chapters of Ankara’s accession negotiations.

Human rights organizations have criticized Merkel and the EU not only for subcontracting out the refugee problem but also for undermining the laws designed to protect refugees—something that EU leaders deny.

Wanting to keep relations between Berlin and Ankara on an even keel, Merkel told Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu that Böhmermann’s poem was “deliberately offensive,” while others even said it was vulgar and not worthy of being called satire. But then artists and writers came to the satirist’s defense. In an open letter published by the German weekly Die Zeit, some 70 artists and prominent persons demanded that proceedings be dropped.

Michael Bertrams, a former president of the German constitutional court, urged the federal government not to authorize a prosecution on charges of insulting a foreign head of state, as sought by Erdoğan. “[The government] would surrender not only Jan Böhmermann but also the freedoms of opinion and artistic expression to an autocrat and despot who flouts civil rights in his own country in a gross manner,” Bertrams said.

Indeed, a new report by English PEN, an organization that seeks to uphold literary freedom, makes for depressing reading about Erdoğan’s growing repression of the media. During 2015, the report states, “more than 30 journalists [were] in jail, more than 100 were detained, close to a thousand bans on publication were issued and access to more than 42,000 websites [was denied].”

The report goes on to argue how Erdoğan’s intimidation strategy has been to treat any criticism as a personal affront and to bring charges against those responsible. Many journalists face potential jail terms on charges of insulting the president or prime minister “for no more than voicing criticism.” Since 2014, there have been 1,845 cases based on charges of insulting the president. The accused include caricaturists, a thirteen-year-old boy, lawyers, and party leaders.

In recent days, Merkel has toughened her stance on the Böhmermann case. She said on April 12 that press freedom in Germany was nonnegotiable and must be kept apart from the refugee issue. “Freedom of the press, opinion and science apply and are completely separate from [the refugee agreement],” she insisted.

That is easier said than done. What is now certain is that by trying to muzzle Böhmermann, Erdoğan has shown how he deals with criticism back home. He won’t have done himself any favors in Germany.

EU-Digest

Brexit: EU referendum: Jeremy Corbyn warns of workers' rights 'bonfire' if UK leaves

To Be Or Not To Be

Jeremy Corbyn has warned there could be a "bonfire" of workers' rights if the UK votes to leave the EU in June.

The Labour leader claimed the Conservatives would "dump" equal pay, annual leave and maternity pay rights.

And he did not think "too many people" had come to the UK from inside the EU.

David Cameron said they disagreed on "lots of things" but welcomed Mr Corbyn's backing for EU membership - as Leave campaigners said the Labour leader "does not really mean it".

Making his first major speech of the EU campaign, Mr Corbyn stood by past criticisms of the EU but said Britain had to remain in to fight for social reform.

Read more: EU referendum: Jeremy Corbyn warns of workers' rights 'bonfire' if UK leaves - BBC News

ROAD SAFETY : ‘Textalyzer’ Can Tell If You Were Texting and Driving- By Anthony Cuthbertson

Driving And Texting Is Dangerous

A new “Textalyzer” device that can determine if a driver was using a phone in the moments leading up to an accident may soon be used by police in New York.

The technology is being developed by Cellebrite, the Israeli startup reportedly employed by the FBI to unlock the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters responsible for 2015’s attack.

New York state Senator Terrence Murphy and Assemblyman Felix Ortiz proposed legislation that would allow police to use the device at the scene of an accident.

Read more: ‘Textalyzer’ Can Tell If You Were Texting and Driving