Mehmet Simsek, the deputy prime minister, tried to dispel fears on Thursday that the country would return to the deep repression seen the last time it was under similar measures. "The state of emergency in Turkey won't include restrictions on movement, gatherings and free press, etc. It isn't martial law of 1990s," he said. "I'm confident Turkey will come out of this with much stronger democracy, better functioning market economy and enhanced investment climate." But as he made his statement, the crackdown spread to journalists and human rights lawyers. Orhan Kemal Cengiz, a leading newspaper columnist and lawyer, was arrested at the airport as he tried to leave the country.  Police also raided the printing house of well-known satirical magazine Le Man...On Thursday, Austria became the first country to take diplomatic action over the crackdown, saying it would summon Turkey's ambassador to discuss Ankara's "increasingly authoritarian" behaviour and allegations it had been behind recent Turkish protests in Vienna. Meanwhile, the UK’s Foreign Affairs Committee said it was to launch an inquiry into Britain’s relations with Turkey and the impact of the crackdown on democracy and human rights.

 Ever since the announcement of the new stress test, in February 2016, the EBA has stated that "passing requirements are not included, because the objective of the test is to use it as a supervision instrument, and the results will be discussed individually with the participating banks, where actions for improving the situation will also be proposed".  The methodology for assessing the solvency as part of the stress test is found on the official website of the EBA, www.eba.europa.eu and should at least engender a minimum of faith among investors when it comes to the banks' abilities to deal with non-performing loans and capitalization deficit. Unfortunately, a general state of "fatigue" seems to have taken place in the Eurozone, amid the waiting in vain for the results promised by the central banks and governments. According to Reuters, amid the disputes between the European and Italian authorities, concerning the initiation of a new bail-out program for Italian banks, but without the prior application of the bail-in procedure, Mario Draghi, the president of the ECB, has expressed his support for the governmental aid offered to Italian banks, because "such a program will allow them to sell some of their non-performing loans, which reduce their lending ability". But is such a "release" of Italian banks' lending capability rational and prudent, when the current volume of non-performing loans shows that they are incapable of correctly evaluating risks?  In the recent meeting of finance ministers of the G20 countries, Pier Carlo Padoan, Italy's finance minister said that "we are going in the right direction and there are no risks when it comes to systemic stability", according to an article in Financial Times. Padoan also rejected the possibility of a bail-in, as he said that such a measure would not be necessary.

When oil analysts look at the markets to try to get a sense of where oil prices are heading, one of the great unknowns, at least in the U.S. shale industry, is the large volume of drilled but uncompleted wells (DUCs). As oil prices began collapsing two years ago, shale drillers increasingly decided to defer the completion of their drilled wells, hoping to wait out the downturn and bring production online at a later point when prices rebounded.  But with oil prices suffering from a prolonged downturn, the DUCS began to mount, leaving a huge backlog of potential production that was yet to come online. From the point of view of the nascent and fragile oil price recovery (or more accurately, several cycles of recovery in the past year or so), the DUCs threatened to kill off the price rally, as they would bring a flood of new production online right when prices rose high enough.  However, it appears that the “fracklog” is already getting worked through. According to Bloomberg Intelligence, the number of DUCs stopped rising in the first quarter of this year.

EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker appointed former French commissioner for financial services as chief negotiator in charge of negotiations with the UK. Michel Barnier, a 65-year old former French minister and vice-president in the previous Commission between 2010-14, was in charge of the internal market and services.  He sought the job of EU Commission president in 2014, but the task was later given to Juncker, his rival in the conservative European People's Party.   Barnier said in a tweet that he was “honoured to be entrusted” with the post.  He added: "Rendez-vous for beginning of demanding task on 1 October." His official title will be "chief negotiator in charge of leading the Commission Taskforce for the Preparation and Conduct of the Negotiations with the United Kingdom" under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. The UK has not yet triggered the exit procedure under Article 50, and British prime minister Theresa May suggested it is unlikely the UK will launch the process before the end of the year. Michel Barnier will report directly to Juncker and will have a team of experts at his disposal.  He will be regularly invited to the the meeting of the commissioners to brief the college on the negotiations. Juncker said he wanted "an experienced politician for this difficult job", adding: "Michel is a skilled negotiator with rich experience in major policy areas." Most of the negotiations are nevertheless expected to be done by the council, representing member states.  They will have to navigate through the difficult two-year negotiations and find a balance between the UK's access to the single market in exchange for some level of freedom of movement from and within the bloc.  Barnier's France has been urging for a tough exit deal for Britain, as French president Francois Hollande faces challenge ahead of next year's presidential elections from far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who wants France to hold a referendum on its membership.

UK = A report from the Home Affairs Committee said: "Past experience has shown that previous attempts to tighten immigration rules have led to a spike in immigration prior to the rules coming into force.  "Much will depend on the negotiations between the UK and the EU and the details of any deal to retain or constrain the free in the European Union."  It suggested three “cut off” dates for when EU citizens can apply for permanent UK residence: the June 23 referendum, the date Article 50 is triggered to begin Brexit talks or the day Britain actually leaves the bloc.  Mr Vaz said: "There is a clear lack of certainty in the Government's approach to the position of EU migrants resident in the UK and British citizens living in the EU...One in three lorries arriving in Britain do not have the security measures needed to keep out stowaways, border officials have also found as it emerged almost half of all people smuggling fines are never paid. Around 750,000 vehicles a year come to the UK without the necessary locks on doors and other measures needed to make sure illegal migrants cannot ride across the border undetected, according to the Border Force. Millions of pounds of penalties for people smuggling have also gone unpaid in recent years after thousands of foreign drivers were caught but failed to pay up.

After the events in Nice, some citizens justifiably complained about the failure of the security measures, in an event celebrating the National Day of France. Furthermore, some of them have announced that they were going to ask the courts to decide who and to what extent was guilty for these criminal "lapses" in the procedures and measures for ensuring people's safety in a public event, which was known and prepared months in advance!!! What was the reaction of the "state"? More specifically, of some of those wallowing in the luxury of the privileges offered by the high official institutions, starting with impotent Hollande himself? They got offended!!! How can that be, some lowly citizens daring to accuse Its Majesty, the State, of failing to honor its contractual obligations???!!! And to add insult to injury, the Internal Affairs minister has announced the subjects of the state of Freedom, Equality and Fraternity that from now on, they can expect events like the one in Nice all the time, events which the state won't be able to prevent in the future, just like it wasn't able to deal with them in the past, as a result of universal fatality!!! The same chilling wind has started blowing in Germany, as, in less than two weeks, there have been three events involving lethal violence in public. So what is the State doing? Sleeping on the job? Who cares about all the paperwork, plans, resolutions and stamps put on who knows what papers, when people are getting killed by bullets, axes or machetes, or by devastating explosions? It is clear that somebody, and not just some persons, but institutions of the state, if not the State itself, is seriously, criminally liable to its citizens!!! It seems the time has come for citizens to hold the state to account. To note the failure to meet the contractual obligations and to plan the restructuring of the institutions that we collectively call the State from the ground up.

The head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, will stand trial over a state payout to the French tycoon Bernard Tapie, an appeals court has ruled.  She is charged with negligence over the award to Mr Tapie of €404m ($445m; £339m) in 2008 when she was France's economy minister. Ms Lagarde had appealed against a lower court ruling from December. She is now expected to appear before a special court for government ministers.  The case stems from Mr Tapie's sale of his majority stake in the sports equipment company, Adidas, which was handled by the state-owned bank, Credit Lyonnais. The businessman sued for compensation after claiming he was defrauded by the bank and received too little from the sale in 1993.  Ms Lagarde was responsible for the rare decision to appoint an arbitration panel, rather than allowing the courts to decide on the dispute.  She served as economy minister when President Nicolas Sarkozy was in office. Mr Tapie was a supporter of Mr Sarkozy and there were allegations this may have played a role in her decision. She has always denied any wrongdoing, saying she acted in the interest of the state and with respect for the law.  After learning of the decision by France's highest appeals court, Ms Lagarde's lawyer, Patrick Maisonneuve, said he was convinced that the trial would show she was innocent. Reacting to the latest ruling, the IMF said the executive board continued to express confidence in her ability to carry out her duties and was being briefed on developments. Ms Lagarde, who was given a second five-year term as IMF managing director in January, is the third head of the organisation to face legal proceedings. For his part, Mr Tapie is currently appealing against a French court's decision to dismiss the settlement at the heart of the case.

Counter Balance and its partner CEE Bankwatch have launched a new report exploring corruption cases in Romania’s third largest company. The Oltenia Energy Complex (OEC) is a key player in the energy sector in Romania and today operates ten lignite mines and four power plants. Supposed recipient of a EUR 200 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD),  OEC stands out for a long list of corruption scandals collected in the last decade. Focusing mainly on the dodgy contracts signed by the company with the Șova and Associates law firm, the report shows a repeated history of state capture practices, involving prominent figures of the Romanian political panorama such as Dan Șova and Victor Ponta, members of the national Parliament, but also local officials.  Although, after fierce protests by civil society, the EU public money did not reach the Romanian company, it is worth remembering the Oltenia Energy Complex case as one to draw some lessons from. Alexandru Mustață, author of the report, claims: “It is crucial that large infrastructure financiers better investigate companies before doing business with them, and monitor them from that moment onwards”. Xavier Sol, director of Counter Balance, underlines: “Such cases of state capture should alert infrastructure financiers like the EBRD to aim for transparency of both the loaner and the loaned as an essential part of the due diligence practice public banks have to conduct”.

Turkish media are widely reporting two men as having orchestrated the attempted coup. One of these is General Akin Ozturk, the former commander of the Turkish Air Force, who retired from the military in August 2015, but who continued to serve as a member of the Supreme Military Council. The second indvidual is Lieutenant-General Metin Iyidil, the Combat and Support Training commander of the Land Forces Training and Doctrine Command. Gaza's Hamas rulers have congratulated Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for quashing an attempted military coup. The Islamic militant group condemned the attempt as a "vicious'' plot to overthrow Erdogan. The Turkish leader has been a staunch supporter of Hamas and a fierce critic of Israel. Hamas supporters took to the streets in several places across the Gaza Strip to celebrate the coup's failure, raising Turkish flags and posters bearing Erdogan's image. Turkey recently restored ties with Israel after a six-year lull following a deadly Israeli naval raid to stop an activist flotilla aiming to breach the Gaza blockade.  

A terrorist who used a hired lorry to kill at least 84 people in a rampage during Bastille Day celebrations in Nice has been named as a convicted criminal well known to the police for armed attacks. Tunisian-born Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31-year-old delivery driver, was reported to be a French passport holder who lived in the Riviera city and was regularly in trouble with the law.

At least 10 children are among the dead following the "cowardly and barbaric" atrocity that left at least one British national among the many injured. Officials feared the death toll will rise, as dramatic footage emerged of the mass killer being shot dead by police in the cab of his truck.  As hundreds remained in hospital - including 18 fighting for their lives in intensive care - investigators have been searching the home of Bouhlel in the Abattoirs area of Nice and carried out a controlled explosion on a white box van nearby...The fact that the killer was known to the authorities will be of grave concern to those trying to prevent terrorist attacks in France.  A recent Paris parliamentary investigation into last year’s attacks identified multiple failings by France’s intelligence agencies.  New Prime Minister Theresa May said Britain must redouble its efforts to defeat  "brutal" terrorist "murderers" after the "horrifying" attack, as she called a meeting of senior officials in the Government's  emergency Cobra committee. 

The European Union resembles to a disturbing degree that unfortunate two headed dragon, that can't agree on any decision, or action to take: one head is the government factor and it is represented by the leaders of the member countries united in a Council, or who negotiate, discuss and even decide before getting to the official meetings; the other head is made up of the big bureaucracy in Brussels, whose top representative is the European Commission. The first reactions to the Brexit?? The government "head", through the voice of Mrs. Merkel used a very "soft" tone, has hinted, that the issue should not be approached hastily, that no one should lift the stone to throw it, that the essence of the Brexit exercise, in an almost biblical sense, shouldn't be the "death of the sinner", but their redemption, if possible, and if not, at least maintaining a relationship that is as cordial as possible, and of course, mutually beneficial. Roughly speaking, Germany has commercial exchanges of approximately 60 billion Euros, in direct commercial exchanges with the United Kingdom alone!!! To avoid making it look like it was siding with the British, by in fact defending its own interests, it changed its tune at the meeting with France and Italy and went with a sterner statement, which doesn't matter anyway: we are not going to negotiate anything with the British, neither formally, nor informally, until they submit their official request to exit the EU and they'd better hurry!!! The other head of the dragon breathed fire! Even through the "nostrils" of the President of the Commission, Claude Junker, the minute the results of the referendum in the UK were announced. The warlike message was: when it comes to the exit process, no one should expect a rain of rose petals. It will be full of thorns, unpleasant and very costly. This message has two goals. One is the attempt of the bureaucracy in Brussels to nip in the bud any other potential deserters who would think that the exit from the EU might a be a pleasant walk in the park! No it is not, it is a ride through the beast infested forest! And the exit leads into a precipice! The second target is the other head of the dragon, the governmental one. It should forget the soft approaches and do what they have to do, meaning breathe fire and burn things. Or else, it runs the risk of having the world think they are dinosaurs and just like dinosaurs evolved into birds, they will turn into chicken over time, like dinosaurs devolved into birds, that anybody can just place in a pot and boil!

France has suggested it is prepared to reach a deal to allow Britain to limit free movement of EU migrants while retaining access to the Single Market.  Michel Sapin, France’s finance minister, said that “everything is on the table” as he appeared to break ranks with the rest of the European Union.  Until now European leaders have insisted that Britain must continue to let in EU migrants if it wants to enjoy the benefits of free trade.  But Mr Sapin told BBC Two’s Newsnight on Wednesday night: “Everything will be on the table because Britain will make proposals, and we will negotiate all these aspects with a desire to come to an agreement.  “Britain won’t be in the same position as it was beforehand. Things will change. Things have already changed. We return to zero. As we say in France, a clean slate.  “When we negotiate with a country, a third party, Norway, Switzerland to take countries that are very close, we discuss all subjects: under what conditions there is freedom of movement of people; freedom of movement of goods; of capital.  “That is something that is very important for the UK with all the questions about financial services. So we discuss everything.”

 The comments represent a significant boost to Britain. Earlier this week, Mr Cameron attempted to lay the groundwork for Brexit negotiations by warning European leaders that they will have to reform free movement if Britain is to retain close economic ties with the continent.  In his final meeting with EU leaders before standing down as Prime Minister, Mr Cameron claimed that British voters backed a Brexit because people believe the country has “no control” of its borders.

The bankruptcy of the EU was triggered by the bankruptcy of Deutschebank, the largest bank in Europe, according to members of the Rothschild banking dynasty. Deutschebank is now under Chinese control, they say. If the Chinese had not stepped in to save Deutschebank, its collapse would have triggered a domino effect that would have taken down the entire European and then Western banking systems, multiple sources agree.  There was also a secret dimension to this bankruptcy that can be traced to military activity in the Pacific Ocean. A massive joint Chinese and American fleet was engaged in “maneuvers” last week off the shores of the Philippines.  You can also confirm on the Pentagon official homepage that massive joint exercises involving naval forces from 27 nations, including China and the US, start near Hawaii on June 30th.

http://www.defense.gov/News-Article-View/Article/799099/rim-of-the-pacific-exercise-2016-begins-june-30.  The real aim of last week’s maneuvers, according to WDS sources, was to cut off gold smuggling by submarines out of the Khazarian mafia submarine base in Nabire, Indonesia....

The result of this maneuver is that the Freeport McMoRan gold mine located near the submarine base has suddenly been put up for sale for the price of $20 billion, according to CIA sources based in Indonesia. Members of the board of directors of Freeport McMorRan have included such characters as Henry Kissinger and Godfrey Stillman Rockefeller.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeport-McMoRan . The CIA sources say the Freeport McMoRan mine is being offered to the Chinese via a front company out of Australia. This is how Indonesia hopes to pay off $20-30 billion that was advanced to it by the Chinese last year, they say. However, they add, “The US side knows that they are selling a virtually empty hole.”  Meanwhile the previous owners of Freeport “will move to another mountain which is within 5-7 miles from the Grasberg mine, which is Freeport’s current mining area. Someone is getting the shaft in this deal… No pun intended.” The source said he thought the massive joint naval exercise was “just a cover.”

 The Chinese need to remember that “Kissinger has been a 50% owner of Freeport since the reign of Suharto, when he was given the shares in exchange for other services and profitable joint ventures between Suharto and the Kissinger Boys…..ie; the Cabal [Khazarian mafia].”

The European Council has offered a narrow window, saying that Britain has not left until Article 50 is activated formally by the Prime Minister, “if it is indeed the intention of the British government.” Mr Cameron has left it to his successor to activate it. Mrs Merkel is in no hurry. Senior EU sources say they can wait until Christmas, but prevarication would trash Britain's credit-worthiness. There are two problems. Firstly, to not activate Article 50 would be a rejection of democracy on a scale that could only be described as a coup, and would poison British public life for generations.

Secondly, a wave of movements demanding referendums on the terms of membership, given a huge boost by Mr Cameron, is tearing across Europe – in France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Italy, Hungary.  Marine Le Pen could will run rampant in French elections in the spring.

Leaders anticipated that Boris Johnson would pursue a 'vote leave for a better deal' strategy, and ruled it out from February, precisely to prevent this scenario.  Jean-Claude Juncker said on Friday: “The repercussions of the British referendum could quickly put a stop to such crass rabble-rousing, as it should soon become clear that the UK was better off inside the EU.” Britain simply has to go, on bad terms, pour encourager les autres.

At least two explosions and gunfire have rocked Istanbul's Ataturk international airport, with reports of "multiple" people injured.  Gunfire was directed from an airport car park, according to a witness quoted by Reuters news agency.  Taxis were ferrying wounded people from the airport, the witness added.  In December, a blast on the tarmac at a different Istanbul airport, Sabiha Gokcen, killed a cleaner.  Recent bomb attacks in Turkey have been linked to Kurdish separatists or the Islamic State group.

A US State Department travel warning for Turkey, originally published in March and updated on Monday, urges US citizens to "exercise heightened vigilance and caution when visiting public access areas, especially those heavily frequented by tourists."

The European Commission is set to present a new draft of its data-exchange pact with the US, the Privacy Shield, in early July.  EU justice commissioner Vera Jourova told EUobserver in a recent interview that the most contentious issues had been agreed by Washington and Brussels.  These concerned access to data by US security services and bulk collection of people’s personal information.  “We reached an accord on more precise listing of cases when bulk collection can occur and a better definition of how our American partners understand the difference between bulk collection which may be justified and mass surveillance without any purpose, which is not tolerable”, she said.  “These specific points have already been finished and put down in written form”.  The shield is to replace the 15 year-old Safe Harbour pact that failed to protect the privacy of EU nationals whose data was transferred to firms, such as Facebook, based in the US.  The EU Court of Justice (ECJ) invalidated the harbour treaty last year, due in part, to revelations by Edward Snowden, a former US intelligence contractor, of mass-scale US snooping on Europeans. The EU commission and the US, after two years of talks, proposed the shield treaty as a replacement earlier this year. But the EU's main regulatory body on privacy, the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party, criticised the draft in the strongest possible terms.  The body is composed of EU states’ national data supervisors and EU officials.  Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, its chair, said in April that the shield would fail to protect people's data. “The possibility that is left in the shield and its annexes for bulk collection … is not acceptable," she said.  She sent the draft back to the EU commission, which is now set to present the updated version. That text becomes binding the moment it is adopted by the 28 commissioners, with no subsequent input from the EU Council or MEPs.

Here is a longer extract from Nigel Farage's controversial 'victory' speech:  "If the predications now are right this will be a victory for real people, a victory for ordinary people, a victory for decent people. We have fought against the multinationals, against the big merchant banks, against big politics, against lies against lies, corruption and deceit and today honesty and decency and belief in nation I think now is going to win.  We will have done it without having to fight, without a single bullet having been fired.  I hope this victory brings down this failed projects and brings us to a Europe of sovereign nation states trading together.  Let June the 23rd go down in our history as our independence day."

Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, has slammed the door on Britain retaining access to the single market if it votes to the leave the European Union.

In an interview in a Brexit-themed issue of German weekly Der Spiegel, the influential veteran politician ruled out the possibility of the UK following a Swiss or Norwegian model that would allow it to enjoy the benefits of the single market without being an EU member.

“That won’t work,” Schäuble told Der Spiegel. “It would require the country to abide by the rules of a club from which it currently wants to withdraw. If the majority in Britain opts for Brexit, that would be a decision against the single market. In is in. Out is out. One has to respect the sovereignty of the British people.”...Supporters of the British leave campaign argue that it is in Germany’s economic interest to maintain barrier-free trade relations with the United Kingdom. Britain is the third-largest export market for German car manufacturers and the destination of around 7% of total German exports. In a debate on the BBC, Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, went even further than the official leave campaign and suggested getting rid of tariffs on goods traded with all countries.

The primary elections in the US are nearing the end, and results so far show that Donald  Trump will be the Republicans' candidate, while the Democratic Party seems ready to go all the way to make sure that Hillary Clinton stays in the race for the White House.  But what seemed like a matter of time underwent a major change of the script, as Trump is leading Hillary in the polls. In this case we are talking about the phone calls of the former US state secretary, who violated official regulations and used her own e-mail server during the time that she held one of the most important positions in the Obama administration. After a period of relative calm, when it seemed that Hillary's violation of the law would be eventually overlooked, the situation changed radically over the last few days, after the publication of a report by Office of the General Inspector of the Department of State. It states that the former US State Secretary "used e-mail in an inadequate manner, without complying with the methods for the logging of public documents and without complying with the policy of the ministry", according to an article in the Washington Post. The report explicitly contradicts the numerous statements by the former State Secretary, which states that "the use of a private server was allowed and no official approval was necessary", and Hillary Clinton accused the institution that she used to lead of "anti-Clinton bias".

Delegates from Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Montenegro, Netherlands, Spain, Romania and the United Kingdom descended on Barcelona on the 26th of May for the 2nd edition of the Euromat Gaming Summit. The international audience were treated to insights from some of Europe's leading operators as well as a panel discussion with regulators from Spain, Italy, Belgium and the European Commission.  Commenting on the event, Eduardo Antoja, President of Euromat said: "My main conclusion from today's panel discussions is that land-based gaming continues to be the bigger segment of the gaming industry, representing almost 70% of players' expenditure. It will continue to be the first choice for many years provided that regulation keeps pace with technological, social and economic reality. Today Euromat confirmed that it's not just a great representative body for our industry, it's a think tank for our sector". Euromat confirmed that the next edition of the Euromat Gaming Summit will take place in Berlin, Germany in 2017.