TTIP – Federal Europe vs United States hissy fit

The beginning of the end?

Or so it seems.

The bureaucrats are having difficulty ironing out who’ll be wearing the trousers, more specifically, provisions for the protection of EU citizens regarding dangerous products.

There’s been a leak “…the US is looking strongly to change regulation in Europe to lessen the protections on the environment, consumer rights and other positions that the EU affords to its citizens.”

Commentators claim these differences are “irreconcilable“.

A death knell for the TTIP?

Bear in mind that the US already signed the TPP last year, including countries in the Pacific ring, such as Vietnam,  Malaysia, Peru, Chile etc.

However, Europe, unlike TPP trading partners, already has it’s own set of laws enshrined both in the common law of the member countries, and the federal authority of the European Union.

It seems the US and the EU are having a battle over whose federalism is the federalism.

Personally, I don’t believe the deal will fall through.

On the back of the previous TPP deal, the US has a pretty strong carrot for negotiations to continue….

Article here.

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VOD: Holographic city

Just to show how weather balloon technology has come along in these few years, the Chinese have managed to reverse engineer their own version.

“But it’s not a balloon”, I hear you scream.

Other speculations come in the form of ‘it was a refraction of the light’, ‘it was a mirage’.

The article is below.

Read it and make up your own minds.

Floating holo-city
Floating over Foshan, China.

Taken from Quartz


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TPP – the secret bill to affect 40% of world trade

If you ever thought moving to another planet was a good idea, here’s a reason why.

TPP countries

TPP is being negotiated in secret by governments of the above countries. None of the residents of these countries can read the bill, yet they are all effected.

The main bones of contention

ISDS, investor-state dispute settlement; Provides exceptional legal privileges to foreign investors not enjoyed by domestic companies or the public by providing private arbitration funded by the tax-payer.
Not a new thing, ISDS has been re-vamped to ensure that multi-national corporations do not suffer from changes in the law in host countries,even when those laws are in the public interest.
ISDS link #1 | ISDS link #2

IP/DRM: Making sharing of a multi-national companies sensitive information a criminal offense. The sharing of copyright material a criminal offense, even for non-commercial purposes.
Under proposals, ISP’s will be responsible to report you, the consumer, to the authorities if you’ve breached copyright law.
Under TPP, I could be prosecuted for quoting these articles, even though they’re for the public information. I’m not seeking to claim they belong to me in any way…. Still a criminal offense….
TPP DRM Copyright

Overall, the TPP represents a radical shift in the role of intellectual property across the Pacific Rim. Under the agreement, intellectual property will be transformed into a means of protecting the investments of multinational companies in culture, advertising, and medicine.

The public interest in access to knowledge, public health and technology transfer has been given short shrift under the plan.” – Dr Matthew Rimmer

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Spratly Islands. Before and after pictures: September 2015

Despite having said the building had stopped, the Chinese have been busy. The Spratly islands is surely the greatest reclamation project in the history of man.

Spratly before and after photos

These before and after pictures from the Spratly archipalego were taken from Australia’s ABC.
The original article can be found here.

Before and after: China builds artificial islands in South China Sea

The installations are not visible, as the photo’s are exclusively satellite.

I’d like to see the Chinese release pictures of the facilities at a more natural angle.

If I come across such pictures, I’ll be sure to post them in a later post.

For now, we are led to believe that the following facilities have been installed on the new islands –

  • Landing strips
  • Helipads
  • Cement plants
  • Air defense guns
  • Radar
  • Satellite masts
  • Lighthouses

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Iran must give up ambitions to be regional power if it wants a deal with the US

The only opponent to the power of Saudi’s in the region, the US is asking Iran to give up it’s rights to trade ‘key assets’, as part of the US-Iran nuclear deal.

John Kerri has been in Vienna for 6 days.

He said he’d going to stay ‘as long as it takes’.

This may be a long holiday…


 

Iran nuclear talks in Vienna
US Secretary of State John Kerry (left) and other top diplomats meet Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (second right) and Iran’s ambassador to International Atomic Energy Agency Ali Akbar Salehi (right) at the Iran nuclear talks in Vienna, Austria(REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger)

Serious differences have emerged in talks between Iran and the world powers as yet another deadline looms in negotiations over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme.

A final deal was supposed to have been reached by 30 June, but this was extended to 7 July – and even this deadline looks likely to slip. ]
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