1 Greece agrees to austerity, triggers street
protests (The Guardian) Five years into the worst crisis to hit their country
in decades, Greek MPs voted by a large majority in the early hours of Thursday
morning to accept draconian austerity as the price of further bailout funds but
at great personal cost to prime minister Alexis Tsipras.
In a vote that saw tensions soar in and outside
parliament, the embattled leader’s radical leftist Syriza party suffered huge
losses as 40 MPs revolted against the measures. A total of 229 lawmakers voted
in favour of the internationally mandated measures, 64 against and six
abstained.
As expected, it was backed by pro-European
opposition parties, including the former ruling party New Democracy, as well as
the Syriza’s coalition partners, the rightwing Independent Greeks. But it was
rejected en masse by MPs from the hardline Left Platform grouping within
Syriza.
The outcome will significantly weaken Tsipras as the
scale of the rebellion sinks in. Stripped of its working majority, the
Syriza-dominated two-party coalition will struggle to enforce the pension cuts
and VAT increases outlined in the deal or implement any other legislation
outside.
But there was also relief that the Greek parliament
had overwhelmingly supported reforms to ensure that talks on a third bailout
for the debt-stricken country can begin.
The prospect of Greece plunging into political
turmoil will be heightened by speculation that Tsipras may be forced to call
early elections after a cabinet reshuffle expected on Thursday. He is likely to
remove objectors within his party but could struggle to govern effectively. The
threat of Athens being forcibly ejected from the eurozone appeared to focus
minds with more MPs voting in favour of austerity reforms than at any other
time in the crisis.
2 After 80 years, Mexico opens up oil sector (BBC) For
the first time in nearly 80 years, Mexico has opened up its oil industry to
foreign investors, selling off 14 exploration blocks in the Gulf of Mexico. However,
only two of the blocks were sold in the auction, falling short of the
government's expectations.
Bidders were expected to sign new contracts with the
Mexican state to explore, produce and refine oil. Mexico has fallen from the
world's fifth biggest oil producer to tenth. Private oil contracts were being
awarded for the first time since the industry was nationalised in 1938.
The auctions are part of the government's plan to
encourage private investment and boost oil production. Only nine companies took
part in the auction, fewer than the 25 originally planned.
3 At Japanese hotel, robots do check-in, check-out
(San Francisco Chronicle) The English-speaking receptionist is a
vicious-looking dinosaur, and the one speaking Japanese is a female humanoid
with blinking lashes. "If you want to check in, push one," the
dinosaur says. The visitor still has to punch a button on the desk, and type in
information on a touch panel screen.
From the front desk to the porter that's an
automated trolley taking luggage up to the room, a hotel in southwestern Japan,
aptly called Weird Hotel, is "manned" almost totally by robots to
save labor costs.
Hideo Sawada, who runs the hotel as part of an
amusement park, insists using robots is not a gimmick, but a serious effort to
utilize technology and achieve efficiency. Another feature of the hotel is the
use of facial recognition technology, instead of the standard electronic keys,
by registering the digital image of the guest's face during check-in. The
reason? Robots aren't good at finding keys, if people happen to lose them.
Staying at Henn na Hotel, as it is called in
Japanese, starts at 9,000 yen ($80), a bargain for Japan, where a stay in one
of the nicer hotels can easily cost twice or three times that much. The
concierge is a doll-like hairless robot with voice recognition that prattles
breakfast and event information. It cannot call a cab or do other errands.
Japan is a world leader in robotics technology, and
the government is trumpeting robotics as a pillar of its growth strategy.
Robots have long been used here in manufacturing. But interest is also high in
exploring the potential of robots in human interaction, including helping care
for the elderly.
Robotics is also key in the decommissioning of the
three reactors in Fukushima, northern Japan, which went into meltdowns in 2011,
in the worst nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl.
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