EU-US Trade Talks And NSA Spying: Britain and Sweden block crucial espionage talks between US and Europe - by Ian Traynor

NSA surveillance scanda

The first talks to soothe transatlantic tensions to be restricted to data privacy and Prism program after Britain and Sweden's veto 

Britain has blocked the first crucial talks on intelligence and espionage between European officials and their American counterparts since the NSA surveillance scandal erupted.

The talks, due to begin in Washington on Monday, will now be restricted to issues of data privacy and the NSA's Prism programme following a tense 24 hours of negotiations in Brussels between national EU ambassadors. Britain, supported only by Sweden, vetoed plans to launch two "working groups" on the espionage debacle with the Americans.

Instead, the talks will consist of one working group focused on the NSA's Prism programme, which has been capturing and storing vast amounts of internet and mobile phone metadata in Europe.

The disclosures in the Guardian over the past month have triggered a transatlantic crisis of confidence and threatened to derail crucial free trade talks between the EU and the US, also due to be launched in Washington on Monday.

The talks on Prism and data privacy have been arranged to coincide with the trade talks in an attempt to defuse the transatlantic tension. EU diplomats and officials say the offer of talks by the Americans is designed to enable the leaders of Germany and France to save face following revelations about the scale of US espionage – particularly in Germany, but also of French and other European embassies and missions in the US.

Other aspects of the dispute, such as more traditional spying and intelligence matters, will be off limits for the Europeans after Britain insisted the EU had no authority to discuss issues of national security and intelligence.

"It was decided. It finished successfully," said Dalia Grybauskaitė, the president of Lithuania, which has just assumed the EU's six-month rotating presidency and which mediated the sensitive talks in Brussels over the past two days  

Note: Several members of the EU-Parliament have said in relation to the above that the EU-Commission is showing "no balls" when it comes to confronting the Americans about their spying activities on European Citizens. As one parliamentarian noted: "who needs enemies when you have friends like this".

Read more: NSA leaks: UK blocks crucial espionage talks between US and Europe | World news | The Guardian

The Netherlands: World Trade Center Almere Business Club Kicks off 2015 with breakfast update on Dutch Economy

WTC Almere

The World Trade Center in Almere kicks-off its Business Club activities for 2015 with a breakfast on January 7, 2015 at 7.30 am

During the breakfast Arthur Bouvy, director corporate and private operations of the Rabobank in Almere, will give his vision and economic forecast on the Netherlands business and financial environment for 2015. .

The Almere World Trade Center is located just opposite the Almere Central train station.

For additional details about this event click on the link below..

Read more: New Years Breakfast Kick off 2015 | WTC Almere

Holidays and Christmas: Which European countries get the most time off over Christmas? - by George Arnett

Europe is a varied continent with plenty of different Europe has at least one statutory day off in the period between 15 December and 15 January. This includes the majority Islamic countries such as Turkey.

Who gets the most though?

The majority of countries in Europe are Christian, whether that is Catholic, Protestant or Orthodox and bearing that in mind there are four key dates to look for:

1. 25 December - Catholic/Protestant Christmas Day, which is the purported anniversary of the birth of Christ
2. New Year’s Day - in terms of the Gregorian calendar, which every single country gets as a holiday
3. 6 January - Epiphany, when Jesus was supposed to have appeared to the Magi (or three wise men)
4. 7 January - Russian Orthodox Christmas Day

Around that there are several eves and and saints’ days but those four are the bedrock of the holiday season. There are secular days too, usually related to revolutions or new declarations of statehood that happened to fall in this time of year.

Russia, the home of the eastern Orthodox church, has the most days off over the Christmas period of any European country. Every day between New Year and the day after Russian Orthodox Christmas is a holiday, giving them eight off in total.

Read more: Which European countries get the most time off over Christmas? | News | The Guardian

Christmas - the reason for the season: Muslim, Jew And Christian On What Jesus Means To Them - by Antonia Blumberg

Jesus plays a distinct role in each of the Abrahamic faiths. This time of year, when Christians celebrate Christ's nativity, his significance in faith traditions across the world is particularly potent.

Rabbi Jason Miller, Imam Shamsi Ali and Fr. James Martin joined HuffPost Live host Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani to discuss what Jesus means to them.

"As a Muslim I do believe that Jesus Christ is one of the mighty prophets of God," Ali said. "In the Quran, he reminded the Muslims that 'Worship God and obey me' means that if you want to worship God then follow me in worshiping the almighty one, the almighty God."

Ali noted that the one place where Christians and Muslims disagree is over the divinity of Jesus, as Muslims believe Jesus to be among five mighty prophets from God.

In Judaism, Miller noted, devotees typically do not "believe in" Jesus as the messiah but rather see him as historical figure who offered certain wise teachings that resonate for Jews. Miller added that Jews do feel utmost respect for "our Christian brothers and sisters" to whom Jesus' divinity is a central teaching.

Read more: A Muslim, Jew And Christian On What Jesus Means To Them

Transportation - Amsterdam Berlin in 40 minutes: the Hyperloop system will transport you at 1287.5 km per hour

Hyperloop, the ultra-fast tube transport dreamed up by SpaceX founder and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, could be ready for passengers in as few as 10 years.

In a 76-page report released on Dropbox on Thursday, a new startup called Hyperloop Transportation Technologies laid out plans for building Musk's futuristic transportation system, which could cut travel time between Los Angeles and San Francisco down to 35 minutes. The trip takes up to 12 hours by Amtrak train, and more than six hours by car.

The system would carry passengers in pods moving as fast as 1287.5 km (800 miles) per hour, according to the white paper. The plan laid out by Musk -- who has no involvement in the project, and did not help with the paper -- has broadened beyond the two California metropoles. Hyperloop Transportation has drawn up maps with lines connecting every major U.S. city.

Read more: Image for The Real Reason Tesla Is Tanking

Turkey cutting lose from the EU ? by FEHİM TAŞTEKİN

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, once a staunch supporter of the EU criteria, is now telling the EU to mind its own business.

He once carried the ambition to raise Turkey’s standards economically and politically, but lately he has become more of a Putin – although I know this is not fair to the Russian president. In the first speech he delivered as president earlier this year, Erdoğan said the “New Turkey” would concentrate on EU talks. However, Erdoğan then boasted of an “Ankara criteria” that he would put in place of the “Copenhagen criteria,” and we can now see that what he meant by this by looking at recent legislation.

While Erdoğan is defending these steps against European institutions that say there is a decline in democracy and liberties in Turkey, he tirades like the head of a self-confident sovereign state. As if the U.K., France or the Netherlands are not sovereign states. As if Europe’s driving force, Germany, is a loser that hands over some it its powers to the European Commission.

The EU has “curb” and “encouragement” mechanisms; one protects the standards, while the other encourages raising the standards. If you are setting up a partnership with the EU, both of these mechanisms step in to do their business. These mechanisms try to keep you within the corridor of the criteria and standards that you have already accepted in advance.

What makes the EU a success story is not its dictation, but rather its negotiating and reconciling culture. There is no point in embracing the “national pride” and “independent foreign policy” rhetoric against the warnings of those who hate these features.

While Erdoğan is pounding the EU, he is also asking what it has done in Syria, Egypt and Palestine.

The hand Erdoğan is shaking while scolds the EU belongs to Putin, who has aborted Turkey’s revolution project in Syria and is also the person who rolled out the red carpet in front of the architect of the coup in Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Also, I do not know what it means to the Justice and Development Party (AKP) - which thinks of itself as the spokesperson of the Palestinian cause - for some EU members to recognize Palestinian statehood, as well as the European Parliament recently. Certain EU members succeed in making Israel much angrier without shouting like Erdoğan. 

The main issue is that there is no power present in the Middle East to question Erdoğan in terms of the law and human rights. The fact that the EU is stepping in as a curbing mechanism gets on his nerves.

Erdoğan is pursuing methods to eliminate all domestic break mechanisms, from the media to the judiciary, from the Parliament to inspection institutions. All this is to make his government untouchable and absolute. He is currently in the business of defaming mechanisms the he cannot get rid of, such as the Constitutional Court. While he is doing this, inevitably he hits out at the EU process that is binding him to the agreements and protocols Turkey has signed.

Erdoğan tells the EU to mind its own business, but the job of the European Commission - with the jurisdiction granted to it by Ankara - is exactly this: To monitor Turkey’s state of affairs. It was only possible to end the military tutelage, an achievement that Erdoğan is so proud of, with the EU stick.

The EU process, which Erdoğan has used as a shield since 2004 against the civilian and military bureaucracy, is now seen by him as an obstacle in front of his plans. The EU, meanwhile, which was not able to obtain any results with its regular break mechanisms, is at the brink of staging a more dramatic reaction. 

 Read more: Turkey cutting lose from the EU - FEHİM TAŞTEKİN

Dutch Government Crises: "SMOKESCREEN IS KEEPING RUTTE GOVERNMENT ON LIFE SUPPORT "

The pieces might have been stuck together, but the "adhesive" attempts of the Center-Right Rutte II  Government are taking more and more desperate forms.

To limit further loss of face lhe Government coalition is trying to find a way to sneak past the Upper Chamber (Senate) blockage of their revised health-care legislation. 

Opposition parties which have been collaborating with the government on major issues have indicated they will not support changes in the legislation.

Read more: Rookgordijn houdt kabinet-Rutte II overeind - AD.nl

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