1 Euro leaders turn pressure on Greece (Ian Traynor,
Jennifer Rankin & Helena Smith in The Guardian) European leaders have
confronted the Greek government with a draconian package of austerity measures
entailing a surrender of fiscal sovereignty as the price of avoiding financial
collapse and being ejected from the single currency bloc.
A weekend of high tension that threatened to break
Europe in two climaxed on Sunday night at a summit of eurozone leaders in
Brussels where the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and President François
Hollande of France presented Greece’s radical prime minister, Alexis Tsipras,
with an ultimatum.
In what a senior EU official described as an
“exercise in extensive mental waterboarding” to secure Greek acquiescence to
talks on a third bailout in five years worth up to €86bn, the two leaders
pressed for absolute certainty from Tsipras that he would honour what was on
offer.
Two days of high-stakes negotiations between the
finance ministers of the currency bloc resulted in a four-page document that
included controversial German elements. Those measures included Greece leaving
the euro temporarily by taking a “time-out” from the currency bloc if it
refuses terms for talks on the new bailout or, in the event of agreement, that
Greece sets aside €50bn worth of assets as collateral for new loans and for
eventual privatisation. Both passages, however, did not enjoy a consensus among
eurozone leaders.
The Eurogroup document said experts from the troika
of creditors – the International Monetary FUND, European Commission and
European Central Bank – would be on the ground in Athens to monitor the
proposed bailout programme. The trio would also have a say in all relevant
Greek draft legislation before it is presented to parliament. Furthermore, the
Greeks will have to amend all legislation already passed by the Syriza
government this year that had not been agreed with the creditors.
The German news magazine Der Spiegel called Sunday
the biggest day of Merkel’s 10-year chancellorship and appealed to her to “show
greatness” and save Europe. If Der Spiegel was right about the momentousness of
Merkel’s day, the same could be said for Hollande of France who, with his
government and officials, has been campaigning tirelessly in recent weeks to
keep Greece in the euro, helping Athens to draft its proposals. A decision to
go ahead with a so-called Grexit would be a shattering failure for Holland, say
observers.
2 China GDP seen dipping (Khaleej Times) China's GDP
growth likely slowed further in the second quarter, a survey has found, as a
slowdown in investment and trade weighed on the world's second-largest economy.
The median forecast in a poll of 14 economists indicates gross domestic product
expanded 6.9 per cent in April-June, marginally down from seven per cent in the
first three months of this year.
That would be the worst quarterly result since the
first three months of 2009, in the depths of the global financial crisis, when
China's economy expanded by 6.6 per cent. China's volatile stock markets have
grabbed headlines this month after the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell
more than 30 per cent in less than four weeks, before reversing course in the
last two trading days.
Chinese authorities want investment to slow as part
of their plan to diversify economic growth away from big-ticket projects to
increasingly wealthy consumers. But too fast a deceleration can be harmful. The
stock market turmoil could also create new risks in China's financial system,
which faces numerous other challenges such as high corporate debt and an opaque
"shadow banking" sector.
China last year recorded its slowest annual growth
since 1990, expanding 7.4 per cent, down from 7.7 per cent in 2013. The
International Monetary Fund lowered its 2015 global economic growth forecast on
Thursday, citing a quarterly contraction early this year in the US, the world's
biggest economy. Economists see positive effects to come from authorities'
efforts to put a floor on the slowdown.
3 US, Japan in giant robot battle (Emily Price in
San Francisco Chronicle) San Francisco-based robot maker MegaBots has
challenged the Japanese company Suidobashi Heavy Industry in a YouTube video
last month to a robot duel, and Suidobashi has accepted.
The challenge was simple: “Suidobashi Heavy
Industries! MegaBots, Inc. challenges you to a duel! You have a giant robot, we
have a giant robot – we have a duty to the science fiction lovers of this world
to fight them to the death,” reads the description on the YouTube page.
The battle will pit MegaBot’s 12,000 lb. Mark II
robot against the Kuratas created by Suidobashi. The MegaBot takes two pilots
to operate and is loaded with a number of guns, some capable of shooting a 3
lb. paint cannon at a speed of more than 100 mph. The Kuratas weighs in
slightly lighter at 9,000 lbs.
In its acceptance video, Suidobashi agreed to the
fight, noting that “giant robots are Japanese culture,” with one stipulation:
the fight has to be hands-to-hand combat, with no guns used by either party. He
says that building something and strapping guns on it is “Super American” and
suggests that MegaBot should “make something cooler.”
Suidobashi has left the organization of the battle
in the hands of MegaBots. The fight is expected to take place a year from now,
which gives everyone time to fine-tune their robots and prepare them for
battle. No matter who wins, it should certainly be something to watch.
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