Greeks wake up to open banks, higher taxes on basic goods
Greeks wake up to open banks, higher taxes on basic goods
ATHENS, Greece — Greek banks reopened Monday for the first time in three weeks, but strict limits on cash withdrawals and higher taxes on everything from coffee to diapers meant the economic outlook for the recession-battered country was far from back to normal.
There were hopeful developments: The cash-strapped nation got a short-term loan from European creditors to pay more than 6 billion euros ($6.5 billion) owed to the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank. Non-payment of either would have derailed Greece’s latest bailout request.
But for most Greeks, already buffeted by six years of recession, Monday was all about rising prices as tax hikes demanded by creditors took effect.
Grievances linger as Cuba, US symbolically mark start of new era
WASHINGTON — The Cuban national flag fluttered in the Washington sun Monday as the U.S. and Cuba formally ended more than a half-century of estrangement, formally re-establishing relations severed at the height of the Cold War. But the symbolism of an embassy ceremony could not conceal deep, lingering conflicts between the nations.
In the sweltering July heat and humidity of America’s capital, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez presided over the flag-raising ceremony just hours after an agreement to restore diplomatic ties broken in 1961 took effect at the stroke of midnight. He later met with Secretary of State John Kerry, becoming the first Cuban foreign minister to set foot in the State Department since 1958.
Kerry announced that he would make a reciprocal visit to Cuba to dedicate the U.S. Embassy in Havana on Aug. 14. He spoke of a need to move beyond the enmity that was spawned as President John F. Kennedy grappled with Fidel Castro’s revolution and Soviet expansionism and that hardened over the 54 years that followed.
Despite pledges of goodwill and mutual respect, ghosts of past animosity hung over the events.
At the reopening of the Cuban embassy and again at a joint news conference with Kerry, Rodriguez repeated demands for the U.S. to end its 53-year embargo, return the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, stop efforts to change or reform Cuba’s communist government and pay compensation for damage done to the island and its people over the past five decades.
UN Security Council unanimously endorses nuclear deal
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council on Monday unanimously endorsed the landmark deal to rein in Iran’s nuclear program and authorized measures leading to the end of U.N. sanctions, but also approved a provision that would automatically reinstate the harsh measures if Tehran reneges on its promises.
European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels immediately followed suit, endorsing the agreement between Iran and six major powers and taking the first step to lift EU sanctions.
President Barack Obama told reporters he hopes the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress, where there is strong opposition to the deal, will pay attention to the “broad international consensus,” stressing that the deal is “by far our strongest approach to ensuring that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon.”
But House Speaker John Boehner accused Obama of “ignoring the concerns of the American people” by allowing “such a consequential vote” to go ahead in the U.N. just 24 hours after submitting the agreement to Congress, which has 60 days to consider it. “This is a bad start for a bad deal,” he said.
With no donor pressure, billionaire Donald Trump brushes off critics
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump faced an avalanche of fresh criticism Monday for questioning Sen. John McCain’s heroism. But he’s getting no pressure at all from the one community that could push a candidate out of the 2016 presidential race: political donors.
The billionaire businessman is paying for his own campaign, and that means Republicans may have him around far longer than some party leaders would like.
“Nobody leaves a race because they get tired, or because they think they don’t have the votes. They leave the race because they run out of money,” said Frank Luntz, a GOP pollster. “Donald Trump will never run out of money, and that makes him incredibly powerful.”
June, first half of 2015 break temperature records
WASHINGTON — Earth dialed the heat up in June, smashing warm temperature records for both the month and the first half of the year.
Off-the-charts heat is “getting to be a monthly thing,” said Jessica Blunden, a climate scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. June was the fourth month of 2015 that set a record, she said.
“There is almost no way that 2015 isn’t going to be the warmest on record,” she added.
NOAA calculated that the world’s average temperature in June hit 61.48 degrees Fahrenheit, breaking the old record set last year by 0.22 degrees. Usually temperature records are broken by one or two one-hundredths of a degree, not nearly a quarter of a degree, Blunden said.
And the picture is even more dramatic when the half-year is considered.
Lawyers may try to use Cosby’s own words against him in court
Bill Cosby’s lurid, decade-old testimony about his philandering could do more than damage what’s left of his fatherly image — it could very well be used against him in court by some of the women who accuse him of sexual assault.
Rocco Cipparone, a defense lawyer in New Jersey who is not connected to any of the legal action surrounding Cosby, said Monday that what the comedian said under oath could wind up hurting him in civil or criminal cases if judges can be persuaded to rule the testimony admissible.
For Cosby to avoid being damaged by his own words, Cipparone said, “you’d have to navigate a virtual minefield.”
Dozens of women have accused Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting them over four decades, though few of the accusations have begun to play out in court, largely because the statute of limitations for criminal charges has run out in most instances.
Doctors say French teen’s HIV has been controlled for 12 years despite stopping AIDS drugs
An 18-year-old French teen born with the AIDS virus has had her infection under control and nearly undetectable despite stopping treatment 12 years ago — an unprecedented remission, doctors are reporting.
The teen might have some form of natural resistance to HIV that hasn’t yet been discovered. But her case revives hope that early, aggressive treatment can limit how strongly the virus takes hold, and perhaps in rare cases, let people control it without lifelong drugs.
By wire sources.