CUBA-Vatican: Under the white robe a shrewed politician with objectives that have little to do with Christianity

Astrid Prange writes in the German DW - "Can praying be sin? In Cuba, one definitely does not need to respond to this question with a 'no.' Pope Francis, the third leader of the Catholic Church to travel to Cuba, prays politically.

His calls for help from heaven could help re-shape the foundations of the one-party system established by the old revolutionaries.

During his visit to Cuba, the Pope has urged Cubans to freely practice their religion, a right that is included in the Cuban constitution, but often disregarded in practice. He aims to push for the renovation of existing churches and the construction of new ones and for Internet access for parishes so they can establish their own media. He has been hinting that the Catholic Church could, once again, run schools, universities and hospitals.

Pope Francis' demands are more than just a "mediation prize" for the Vatican's successful diplomacy, which has encouraged the rapprochement between Havana and Washington. They are also telling us that religious freedom means more than just holding church services, worshiping saints and taking part in processions without worrying about the secret police.

Religious freedom is a human right that touches the innermost selves of people and is one the pillars of an open-minded, democratic society. In Cuba, the growing political influence of the Vatican can become a catalyst for reforms. Years ago, when the Soviet Union was falling apart, the Catholic Church was striving for this role. Now it seems like the Church's time has come.

And if that were not enough: once again, the Catholic Church is going down in Latin American history. In the 1960s and 1970s, revolutionary liberation theology, a religious movement in the New World, startled the cardinals in Rome. Now, liberation theology - personified in Pope Francis - has arrived in the Vatican and has put the old socialist revolutionaries in Havana in an uneasy state.


Read moreA holy revolution: Pope Francis in Cuba | Opinion | DW.COM | 20.09.2015

Middle East: US to accept extra 30,000 refugees over two years, says John Kerry - by Jon Swaine

The US will accept an extra 30,000 refugees from around the world over the next two years, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday, as the Obama administration came under further pressure to take in more victims of the Syrian civil war.

Speaking as his predecessor Hillary Clinton urged America to “lead the world” in responding to the Syrian emergency, Kerry said the total number of refugees taken by the US yearly would rise from 70,000 to 85,000 next year and to 100,000 in 2017, Reuters reported.

“The need is enormous, but we are determined to answer the call,” Kerry said, during remarks in Berlin. Kerry reportedly did not say whether any of the additional refugees would be from Syria.

Earlier on Sunday, Clinton said the US should take in more than six times the 10,000 Syrian refugees that has been proposed by President Barack Obama.

“We’re facing the worst refugee crisis since the end of world war two, and I think the United States has to do more,” Clinton said on CBS. “And I would like to see us move from what is a good start with 10,000 to 65,000.”

Read more: US to accept extra 30,000 refugees over two years, says John Kerry | US news | The Guardian

Welfare US Spends Far More on Social Welfare Than Most European Nations - by Robert Rector

The U.S. Census Bureau has released its annual poverty report. Conventional wisdom holds that the U.S. has a small social welfare system and far more poverty compared with other affluent nations.

But noted liberal scholars Irwin Garfinkel, Lee Rainwater, and Timothy Smeeding challenge such simplistic ideas in their book “Wealth and Welfare States: Is America a Laggard or Leader?”

Garfinkel and his colleagues examine social welfare spending and poverty in rich nations. They define social welfare as having five components: health care spending, education spending, cash retirement benefits, other government cash transfers such as unemployment insurance and the earned-income tax credit (EITC), and non-cash aid such as food stamps and public housing.

The authors find that in the U.S., social welfare spending differs from that in other affluent countries because it draws heavily on both public and private resources. By contrast, in Europe, government controls most of the resources and benefits. For example, in the U.S., government health care spending is targeted to elderly and low-income persons; the American middle and working classes rely primarily on employer-provided health insurance.

The U.S. government health care system is, therefore, more redistributive than the systems of most other developed nations.

Elderly middle-class Americans are also more likely to have private pensions than are Europeans. Middle-class parents in the U.S. pay for much of the cost of their children’s post-secondary education; in Europe, the government pays. Overall, in Europe, the upper middle class is heavily dependent on government benefits; in the U.S., it relies much more on its own resources.

But even setting aside the private sector, the U.S. still has a very large social welfare system. In fact, among affluent nations, the U.S. has the third highest level of per capita government social welfare spending. This is striking, given that government spending in the U.S.  is more tightly targeted to benefit the poor and elderly.

When private-sector contributions to retirement, health care, and education are added to the count, social welfare spending in the U.S. dwarfs that of other nations. In fact, social welfare spending per capita in the U.S. rises to nearly twice the European average. As Garfinkel, et al. conclude:

For those who believe the absolute size of the US welfare state is small, the data presented … [in the book] are shocking and constitute a wake up call. Once health and education benefits are counted, real per capita social welfare in the United States is larger than in almost all other countries!

Only one nation (Norway) spends more per person than the U.S. spends.

How much of this spending reaches the poor? The left often claims that the U.S has a far higher poverty rate than other developed nations have. These claims are based on a “relative poverty” standard, in which being “poor” is defined as having an income below 50 percent of the national median. Since the median income in the United States is substantially higher than the median income in most European countries, these comparisons establish a higher hurdle for escaping from “poverty” in the U.S. than is found elsewhere.

Read more: US Spends Far More on Social Welfare Than Most European Nations

Refugees: ′Europeans are the better Muslims′

There has been mounting criticism over the role of the Arab states when it comes to taking in the refugees on their own doorstep. According to human rights activist Iyad El-Baghdadi, this is an Arab moral crisis.

Deutsche Welle: The mounting refugee crisis has been dominating Europe's news the past few weeks. How do the Arab states react to this crisis?

Iyad El-Baghdadi: The fact that it is not dominating Arab news as much and the fact that we have to flee our homes and that we have to become stateless and homeless at all - that really upsets me. In 2011 the region had the opportunity to rise up and to experience a revival on the basis of which we don't need to seek a future elsewhere. But because this historical moment was crushed so severely, the result is what we see today.

What do you think of Europe's response so far?
I am impressed that the discussion about the right and moral thing to do is entering the debate. We are witnessing a moral crisis whereby we have to look to Europe, to the Vatican and to the Pope for moral leadership. We cannot handle our own refugee crisis while we are a net producer of refugees. The burden is now on Europe to do the right thing.

Read more: ′Europeans are the better Muslims′ | Middle East | DW.COM | 16.09.2015

Syrian Refugee Smugglers Arrested: in the Netherlands after Hundreds Illegaly Taken To Holland, Police Say - by Adam Lidgett

Authorities have arrested two Syrian men on human trafficking charges for smuggling hundreds of refugees into the Netherlands from Austria, Greece and Hungary, a news agency in the Netherlands reported. Police took into custody a 35-year-old Syrian man, who is also a refugee and the prime suspect in the case, and his 26-year-old cousin, authorities have said.

The two men operated out of the Dutch city of Eindhoven, and were found by the Royal Marechaussee, a military police force in the Netherlands. The Dutch National Office of the Public Prosecutor, along with authorities in Austria, Germany, Hungary, Italy and the European Police Office, headed the investigation, which has been going on for about a year.

The suspects are thought to have transported hundreds of refugees from Syria, with recent trips made on an almost a daily basis. While the conditions of the transportation were not immediately available, it is believed all the refugees made it through the trips alive. The prime suspect is believed to have earned between 60,000 and 120,000 euros from smuggling.

The suspects would have people working for them in Syria look for refugees in the war-torn country who wanted to leave for Europe, police said. These refugees would be gathered and taken to various points in Athens, Budapest, Milan and Vienna, where the two suspects would be waiting.

When a sizeable group was gathered, the 35-year-old prime suspect would be notified and he would send either a rental car or minivan to get the refugees. Police said the suspects used rentals so they couldn’t be as easily detected.

Read more: Syrian Refugee Smugglers Arrested: Human Trafficking Charges In Netherlands Alleged After Hundreds Illegaly Taken To Holland, Police Say

Facebook friends versus 2 am friends

A friend told me about a group of people who share a strong bond of faith in Christ. One of them, a 93 year old woman said , "I feel like I can call any of you at 2 am, and I dont even have to apologize if I need any kind of assistance. " Whether the need is prayer, practical help, or comfort in times of need, these friends are unconditionally committed to each other."

The same type of commitment which shined through the disciple Paul's letters he wrote out of hos prison cell in Rome to the followers of Jesus in Colosse..

Note EU-Digest: 2 am friends are very rare, whatever religion or cultural background you are from. Some of them might even be on Facebook. Nevertheless, if you have them treasure and love them.

Read more about this in Our Daily Bread 

Aircraft Safety: Airbus to regulators: We don't need Boeing's steel lithium ion battery box- by Steve Wilhelm

Airbus will follow Boeing’s lead and power its new A350 widebody jets with lithium ion batteries, but the company does not want to put the batteries in a steel box like Boeing did.

Airbus says its batteries are smaller and safer than Boeing's original Dreamliner design, which was plagued by problems when it was first launched. Airbus now wants to switch from a heavier nickel cadmium battery it has been using to the lighter lithium ion ones.

Flight Global this week reported Airbus is nearing regulatory approval for its lithium ion batteries, but the company is still arguing its design is safer than Boeing’s and that Airbus therefore won’t need to put the batteries inside heavy steel boxes.

“If you start to put a huge coffin around the battery system in place then you lose all the benefit of the lithium ion battery,” Airbus Executive Vice-President of Engineering Charles Champion, told Flight Global.

The entire fleet of 50 active Boeing 787s was grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration Jan. 16, 2013, after a battery aboard an All Nippon Airways Dreamliner overheated and charred, forcing an emergency landing in Japan. That was preceded by a Jan. 7, 2013 battery fire on a Japan Airlines 787 Dreamliner at Boston’s Logan airport.

Boeing (NYSE: BA) began adding steel boxes around the batteries as a condition for continuing to use lithium ion batteries in the Dreamliners.

While Boeing’s fix made some changes to the inner structure of twin eight-cell lithium ion batteries, the biggest change was to house each in a stainless steel box, vented to the outside of the jet, that would contain any future overheating incident.

After that, Airbus punted its own lithium ion battery plans by temporarily using heavier and more traditional nickel cadmium batteries on the competing A350. Airbus decided to switch to the nickel cadmium around the time Boeing was struggling with its Dreamliner batteries.

Now, though, Airbus is about to make the switch as it pits the A350 against the Dreamliner, and airlines push manufacturers to develop the most fuel-efficient planes possible. Airbus delivered the first A350 in December.

Read more: Airbus to regulators: We don't need Boeing's steel lithium ion battery box - Puget Sound Business Journal

European Banking industry: Euro governments have recovered less than half of bank aid

Eurozone governments have recovered less than half of the financial aid provided to banks since the global financial crisis, the European Central Bank said, pointing out that the outstanding guarantees pose an additional risk.

Governments have offered a wide range of bank support from guarantees to purchasing assets and providing equity to prevent a credit crunch since the financial crisis commenced in 2008.

The 40 per cent recovery rate so far is low by international comparison and risks remain as outstanding guarantees are worth 2.7 per cent of the Eurozone’s GDP, the ECB said in an economic bulletin on Wednesday.

“The recovery rates to date are particularly low in Ireland, Cyprus and Portugal, while they are relatively high in the Netherlands,” it said in a paper that forms part of its larger economic update, due out on Thursday.

“The recovery rates ... are improving, but are still relatively low by historical standards.” The central bank added that nearly a fifth of the total debt increase in the bloc from 65 per cent of GDP in 2008 to 92 per cent at the end of 2014 was related to the bank aid.

Read more: Euro governments have recovered less than half of bank aid — European Central Bank | GulfNews.com

Britain: Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn brings quiet, calm manner to Parliament - CSMonitor.com

Jeremy Corbyn, the new leader of Britain's Labour Party, made good on his promise to introduce a more measured tone to the usually raucous 'prime minister's question time.'

David Cameron welcomed a more serious forum for posing and answering questions.

On his first appearance at the dispatch box, Jeremy Corbyn, the new leader of Britain's Labour Party, made good on his promise to introduce a more measured tone to the usually raucous "prime minister's question time."

Facing off against Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday, Corbyn asked a series of questions in a quiet and calm manner that invited a measured response, not a cutting one-line riposte.

It certainly made a change for one of the most recognizable features of British democracy, which has over the decades been nothing more than a shouting match between the prime minister and the leader of the opposition.

Read more: Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn brings quiet, calm manner to Parliament - CSMonitor.com

USA - GOP Second Debate: a reality show which has nothing to do with elections or Democracy

This debate was the latest sign that influential Republicans are increasingly worried that Donald Trump could become the party's nominee, and they are determined to stop him.

A day after a major conservative group, the Club for Growth, launched a series of ads targeting Trump, several of his rival candidates at the debate in California aggressively attacked the man who leads the polls of the Republican race.

This is also a sign that the Special Interest groups in America, which today control most of the Democratic and Republican political candidates (including the Presidential ones),  and who have turned the US from a Democracy into an Oligarchy, are trying to eliminate Donald Trump politically.

Carson and Trump, who so far have not been seeking financial support from special interest groups have obviously become the target of them and their loyal financially dependent "clients" in the Republican party.

In case any of these two would win the nomination, it would mean that the Special Interest Groups massive investment in "pro-business" and "pro-keeping a blind eye" candidates they invested in to support their tax evasion schemes, or stopping the advantage of those seeking an equal distribution of wealth,etc., would be wasted. 

Bottom line of this Republican debate - which some are also calling a "political reality show",  is that it clearly revealed that Democracy in America is now on life support.

EU-Digest

Microsoft: Windows 10 Downloads = Microsoft Update Silently Steals Gigabytes Of Storage Space - by Mke Brown

Microsoft has confirmed that it downloads Windows 10 files to computers just in case users decide to upgrade. The company wants to make the migration to Win10 as efficient as possible, but the files take up somewhere between 3.5 to 6GB of disk space.

The situation was first reported by an anonymous reader at The Inquirer, who found the "~BT" folder used for storing copies of Windows 10 had appeared on his system, despite the user not expressing any interest in upgrading.

"I know of two instances where people on metered connections went over their data cap for August because of this unwanted download," he said. "My own Internet (slow DSL) was crawling for a week or so until I discovered this problem."

Microsoft confirmed the problem in a statement to the publication. "For individuals who have chosen to receive automatic updates through Windows Update, we help upgradable devices get ready for Windows 10 by downloading the files they’ll need if they decide to upgrade," the statement read.

Read more: Windows 10 Downloads Secretly Onto PCs: Microsoft Update Silently Steals Gigabytes Of Storage Space

Germany: Deutsche Bank could cut workforce by 25 percent

Deutsche Bank is considering shedding almost a quarter of its global workforce as it looks to honour pledges to cut costs and streamline its operations.

Some 8,000 jobs could be cut, while the bank has already announced plans to hive off its consumer division PostBank which employs another 15,000 people.

It’s thought that the cuts would mostly affect administrative and technology posts.

Preliminary details of the plan were presented to supervisory board members at the weekend by CEO John Cryan, who took control of Germany’s biggest bank in July promising to tackle what he described as Deutsche Bank’s “swollen” cost base.

Read more: Deutsche Bank could cut workforce by 25 percent | euronews, economy

EU: Stress Tests The European Project Under Pressure

The Green European Foundation is a European-level political foundation whose mission is to contribute to a lively European sphere of debate and to foster greater involvement by citizens in European politics.

GEF strives to mainstream discussions on European policies and politics both within and beyond the Green political family.

The foundation acts as a laboratory for new ideas, offers cross-border political education and a platform for cooperation and exchange at the European level.

Read the full  report GEF-ED-2015-web.pdf

Banking Industry: Nine of the World’s Biggest Banks Form Blockchain Partnership

Nine of the world’s biggest banks, including Goldman Sachs and Barclays, have joined forces with New York-based financial tech firm R3 to create a framework for using blockchain technology in the markets, the firm said on Tuesday.

It is the first time banks have come together to work on a shared way in which the technology that underpins bitcoin — a controversial, Web-based “cryptocurrency” — can be used in finance.

Over the past year, interest in blockchain technology has grown rapidly. It has already attracted significant investment from many major banks, which reckon it could save them money by making their operations faster, more efficient and more transparent.

Read more: Nine of the World’s Biggest Banks Form Blockchain Partnership | Re/code

ECB gives central banks power to announce emergency funding

National central banks in the euro zone will now have the power to make announcements about any emergency funding that they provide to their banks, the European Central Bank said on Wednesday.

Official announcements about the supply of Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA), such as in the case of Greek banks, had so far been made by the ECB itself.

“The Governing Council of the European Central Bank has decided that national central banks will from now on have the option to communicate publicly about the provision of Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) to the banks in their country, in cases where they deem that such communication is necessary,” the ECB said on Wednesday.

Central banks will still have to seek ECB approval to provide ELA and to make any announcement about it.

Read more: ECB gives central banks power to announce emergency funding - The Globe and Mail

Insurance Industry: Citi: Insurance disruption as companies could start tracking workers - by Bob Bryan

Imagine a world where a worker punches the clock and slips on a heart-rate monitor that's tracked by an insurance company.

The worker turns on a truck, which alerts the insurance company it's on, and drives to a warehouse, which alerts the insurance company that someone is there.

Every inch, every activity, monitored and measured by the insurance company.

According to analysts at Citi, this is the future of work, and, despite its Orwellian overtones, it's a good thing.
Todd Bault, James Naklicki, and Alex Gifford at Citi identified numerous trends that could disrupt the insurance industry as it's constructed, and one of the most interesting was their idea of "the Feed."

The Feed would be a real-time link that connects businesses, equipment, facilities, workers, and the insurance company, providing real-time updates on how risky a given situation is.

"But the potential here seems higher for commercial lines: with fewer or no privacy issues, and existing pervasive automation, it seems like a smaller step to embed IoT into industrial (manufacturing) and service (venues) processes, not to mention commercial auto activities like trucking and livery," said the analysts. "Employees in certain high hazard occupations could even be wired and monitored, though there could be resistance here."

By monitoring these operations in real time, the analysts think this could lead to a multistage revolution in the insurance industry.

Read more:Citi: Insurance disruption as companies could start tracking workers - Business Insider

Europe 'Disgraced Itself' Over Refugee Quota Failure: German Vice Chancellor - by Jack Moore

German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel has condemned European Union member states for failing to agree on mandatory quotas to spread the burden of the refugee crisis, saying on Tuesday that the economic bloc had "disgraced itself."

"Europe once again disgraced itself yesterday," Gabriel said, the day after EU ministers failed to reach an agreement in Brussels over a proposal to absorb 120,000 refugees around the union's member states.

Germany has been the EU member to accept the most refugees, with more than 800,000 people moving into the country this year alone. Other EU member states has been more hesitant on the issue, with countries such as Hungary and Slovakia resisting calls for a mandatory refugee quota.

Read more: Europe 'Disgraced Itself' Over Refugee Quota Failure: German Vice Chancellor

Aircraft Industry: Airbus opens first planemaking plant in the US

Europe's leading jetmaker, Airbus, has inaugurated its first production facility in the United States. The move is a direct affront to its American rival Boeing as the France-based company snatches up more market share.

For many workers in Mobile, Alabama, industrial action is something done by Europeans.
In fact, there are hardly ever walkouts or protests by unruly employees. That's because there are hardly any unions.

The state also has one of the lowest minimum wages in the country - $7.25, or 6.41 euros, per hour.
Overall, for companies looking to unburden themselves from the high cost of unionized labor in Europe, the conservative, southern state drives a pretty hard bargain, one that has resounded with at least one major airplane maker across the Atlantic.

Read more: Airbus opens first planemaking plant in the US | Business | DW.COM | 14.09.2015

China is dumping U.S. debt

So should Americans be concerned that China has started dumping some of its Treasury holdings because it is no secret China is the largest holder of US debt ?

After all, it raises serious questions about whether China will keep lending Washington money to help finance the federal deficit in the future.

But right now, China is selling because it's in dire need of cash. Recently, it unleashed multiple moves to support its markets and prevent its currency from a freefall, while at the same time trying to stimulate the economy.

China owned $1.3 trillion of U.S. Treasuries as of June, making it the biggest holder of U.S. debt.

But China's foreign-exchange reserves plunged by a record $94 billion in August, according to the country's central bank, leaving it with a war chest of $3.6 trillion. Analysts say it's very safe to believe a big chunk of that decline occurred due to a reduction in U.S. Treasury holdings.

The selling and the potential that China will not be buying U.S. debt in the near future raises questions on its potential to increase America's borrowing costs.

Read more: China is dumping U.S. debt - Sep. 10, 2015

Greece's Tax-Evading Professionals - by Leonid Bershidsky

Greece would be much better off if the government could collect the taxes owed by the self-employed. That's the lesson from a paper released this month that uses an innovative method of capturing tax evasion.

Estimating shadow economies is tough. Friedrich Schneider of the Johannes Kepler University of Linz in Austria, Europe's leading authority on the subject, has pointed out that none of the accepted methods is completely reliable.

For example, comparing expenditure and income statistics isn't ideal because the results are distorted by omissions and errors in national accounts; and using indicators such as electricity consumption doesn't take into account shadow sector activities that don't require much energy.

Still, Schneider measures Europe's shadow economies annually. Click on th4 link below for  the 2014 estimates from a paper he published this year with two collaborators:

Read more: Greece's Tax-Evading Professionals - Bloomberg View